The Next Generation
by Ckoenig
Summary: A new generation of shinobi steps up to defend the leaf.  Naruto's generation about 26-27 . Can they survive this dangerous world?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys. Cam here. I had thought of these characters for a long time, but only started to write this now. This is hopefully gonna be a long series. All characters that belong to Mashshi Kishimoto belong to him. All of the OC's in this story are mine. If anyone is willing to draw these guys with some direction from me(for free) (hahaha) please PM me or email me at general cam g m a il . C o m No capital C of course**

**ENJOY CHAPTER 1**

"Okay everyone get in your seats." The teacher said to the class. Today was the day. The day the new graduates would find out what team they are going to be in until they were chuunin. So about 1-3 years. "Now If I can begin I'll start" Hisoka-sensei cleared her throat. She quickly gazed at the 33 students in front of her. She knew out of the last 70 to graduate in the past two years, only about 41 were alive. It had been a tough couple years for genin.

"Okay, for Team 1. You will have Nozomi Torii for you jounin sensei. Amane Konishi, Chitose Anami, and Seinosuke Ando."

Amane looked up over the tops of his glasses. The 14 year old wondered why he was put with the best kid in the class. Sure, Seinosuke was his friend, but Amane was 3rd or 4th in the class. He thought the teams should have been more spread out.

Chitose looked at Seinosuke. Most of the girls had a slight crush on him, he was quite handsome, but only when he didn't have on his bandana covering half of his face, and his giant hood on the sweatshirt over his hair. She brushed back her waist long hair.

Seinosuke thought the team was awesome, even if there were three nin-jutsu specialists on the same team. It would be his time to shine.

"Team 2. Your sensei is Seito Asai. Fujiwara Takumi, Ishimaru Akira, and Morita Idoe."

Fujiwara was a quiet guy, pretty normal. Except he had completely black eyes due to the jutsu he uses. He had his baklava off and everyone could see his shaved head. Another downfall of his phantom jutsu.

Ishimaru really couldn't care less. He hoped to have his buddy Juro on the same team, but Fujiwara was cool, and Morita was too bad looking. He moved his goggles from his forehead to his eyes. He could now see. He wasn't really happy about his new 20/80 vision.

Morita wasn't happy. Fujiwara was a hair away from being a freak and Ishimaru was a complete perv. She moved a strand of hair out of her eye and sighed. This was going to be a long year.

"Team 6. Your sensei will be Dosu Ota. Haru Hyuuga, Kane Ryuu, and Juro Yamanaka."

Haru put his head in his hands. He had hoped for his cousin, Neji, but there wasn't much he could do. Now, he would have to train with him off duty. He sighed.

Kane simply tried not to spill one of the poisons she had received from her mother today. She specialized in poison and acids, even developing a couple new jutsu's along with the help of Shizune, who had helped a lot.

Juro looked at Kane and Haru. Not a bad team. Kane didn't really like him but Haru didn't really care so he was fine. He would have to ask his cousin, Ino, about Dosu.

"Team 9. Your sensei will be Imari Higoshi. Sora Ouensu, Takashi Nikliusu, and Hikaru Doora."

Sora looked at her friends on the squad and then her fellow 14 year old Amane. He was just smiling. He wrote down a note and it read "Maybe you wont be such a tomboy now." She'd get him for that.

Takashi was happy. He had been the first refugee from another hidden village to graduate the academy. His parents had to leave the sand village when Gaara was kidnapped by the Akatsuki. Takashi's dad could manipulate sand and other nations wanted that ability. Takashi looked at the backpack he carried with him. Full of sand.

Hikaru just thought he would have to train harder now. He used puppets after seeing Kankuro of the sand village once. Hikaru used two. One, which he calls the scarecrow, looks like one and is his "run and gun" puppet. Another, the croc, was basically a tank. He once again did not like the choice of sensei.

The rest of the teams were announced and the class was dismissed. "Oh, and hang out with your new team today." Hisoka-sensei yelled.

Chitose suggested they go to lunch. Amane and Seinosuke agreed. When they got to the diner, they saw that the only table available was for two. Chitose literally threw Amane back out the door. He sat at the counter.

"So what do you think of the teams?" Chitose asked.

"Well, I think they are great. Even though we have 2 nin-jutsu specialists and a tai-jutsu specialist. We really don't have any genjutsu but I think we can get by that."

Amane poked his head up. "I have nin-justu"

Chitose yelled back. "You tai-justu better!…" She sweared under her breath.

They had a causal conversation, the rest of the meal. The real fun was when Sora, Takashi, and Hikaru came in and sat next to Amane. He was eating soup when Sora decided to "get" him. She slammed his head on the counter.

"What the hell was that for you sonofa…" He saw it was Sora and stopped. He paid his bill and left. Chitose and Seinosuke were leaving at the same time, and the three of them left. Amane was trying to decide if his nose was broken. It had already been broken 4 times. He really didn't want to wear the facemask again.

"How come he takes all the shit from you?" Hikaru said once Takashi and Sora were sitting on either side of him at the counter.

"Cause I'd break his nose again if he didn't." Sora said with a smile.

"Haven't you already done that like 4 times?" Takashi asked.

"Well the first two were accidents." Sora replied.

The sand man and the puppet master looked at each other. They knew along with everyone that Sora and Amane were going out. They have been for like a year. Hikaru really thought they were a great match. Takashi just liked to keep his mouth shut.

"So, what's the special?" Sora asked.

The waitress stared at her for a minute.

MEANWHILE…

Juro was running for his life. Kane was desperately trying to kill him this time. He accidentally called her fat and she tried to throw a poison dipped needle at him. She barely missed and Haru had to grab it in midair before it killed someone.

"Well, looks like your loud-mouth finally got the best of you." Haru said over his radio to Juro. Juro just kept running.

Haru thought Juro was a reminder of his older cousin Ino. From the times he had seen her at least. Loud mouth. Blonde hair. Ponytail thing.

Juro then had his plan. He would use his mind-switch jutsu on Kane, and get her as far away as possible. He turned and saw Kane running. He did the hand signs and released his justu.

"Mind Body Switch" Juro shot it, Kane unfortunately for Juro dived and rolled away. He hit a cat.

Juro blinked a few times. He realized he was in the cat.

"Meow"

"Fuck" he thought. Kane got to his body and started kicking him…where the sun don't shine.

Juro decided to stay as the cat for a while.

Morita was still trying not to pay attention to Ishimaru. He was still trying to impress her with some jokes. They weren't working. She just kept reading her book. Fujiwara was playing wall-ball with himself.

"Just great" He thought. "No one to play with and Ishimaru is thinking with his well…" Fujiwara just kept throwing his tennis ball at the wall.

"Some bonding we're doing". He took a sip from his water bottle and looked up. Kaz was walking on a roof with Manami and Tomu.

He yelled up. "Hey you guys want to play wall-ball?" They looked down and jumped down.

Kaz Matsui, Manami Suzuki, and Tomu Ara were genin. They were a year older and didn't enter the chuunin exams because of their sensei's death on an ANBU mission. So the jounin that replaced him, kept them back so he could see their true skills. His name was Dan Yoshida. Kaz was a genjutsu specialist. He usually used smoke and then made his move. Manami used ninjutsu that dealt with earth and wood. Tsuande found the First's scrolls for his Wood jutsu and decided to give it to Manami's father. Manami was taught as soon as she could read them. Tomu used mostly, like Ishimaru, Ice ninjutsu but he was more capable with weapons.

When Ishimaru saw Manami however, he remembered this girl. She was the hottest genin. Even Seinosuke had a slight crush on her, and the feeling was a little mutual. Suddenly he was trying his routine on her. Morita smiled and left. Fujiwara saw the smile and nodded. His work was done. He went back to playing wall-ball.

Ishimaru didn't get one pick-up line in. Manami left. She didn't feel like playing wall-ball. Ishimaru chased after her.

"So who did ya get for a sensei?" Kaz asked. Fujiwara looked up.

"Some guy named

"He's nice. You'll do fine." Tomu said in reply.

**The Next Day************************************************************

"Yeah."

The next day***

The new senseis asked to meet their new squad the day after. Nozomi was kind of a big nerd. He had very shaggy black hair and had black plastic glasses. He was currently fiddling with his headband. Team 1 was walking down a path in the park just north of the Hokage's office.

"Well, I guess I should go first." Nozomi said. "I graduated from the academy the year after the Akatsuki war ended. My parents weren't ninjas, but I was inspired by the shinobi of the time. So I figured out what I needed to do and I started training like crazy. I got through the chuunin exams on the first try and was promoted to jounin at 18. I was in ANBU for a couple months but I got out after that because it was really demanding. This is my second squad I've lead. The first was for two years and I'm happy to say that they all passed. So how bout we start with one of you guys." Seinosuke and Amane pointed at Chitose.

She sighed, "Well, my name is Chitose Anami. My father is a captain in the merchant marine core for the leaf nation and my mother is a surgeon at the hospital. I wanted to be a ninja because….uh…. well, I just wanted to be one really. I specialize in water ninjutsu."

Nozoki nodded. "Okay, well how 'bout you, uh…, Seinosuke."

"Well. My father and mother are both ninjas. My father uses his clan's ninjutsu, which is a branch off of the Inuzuka clans. My mother is a gen-jutsu specialist and works in a squad with other gen-jutsu specialists. I also use my clan's jutsu. I work with a jackal named Kuroda. He is from the Canis sanctuary. I summon him in battle."

Nozoki nodded. "Ok, Amane why don't you go."

Amane sighed. "Ok. I specialize in taijutsu and use earth-based ninjutsu. My parents were ninjas also, but are currently in prison in a Mist Nation prison for the next 30 some odd years because they were captured on a mission."

"So. Today we will relax, tomorrow comes the training." Nozoki said, pushing up his glasses. The genin left.

Team 2 was meeting with their new sensei,.

"So, how bout you guys give me the rundown on your jutsu. Cause I know absolutely nothing about any of it." Seito smiled and looked at the three. None were pleased. He couldn't even see most of Fujiwara's face and he could tell he was kind of pissed.

"Well. My name is Fujiwara Takumi. I use a special kind of jutsu that involves my…" Fujiwara paused and thought it over. "It's kind of like that comic book Negative Man. But I can control my "phantom" as I like to call it and my body at the same time. It's pretty cool."

Seito nodded. "That does sound pretty cool man. Can you show me?" He seemed like a kid in a candy shop. Fujiwara took a deep breath and did two hand signs. He then preformed a third and fourth that were unfamiliar to .

"Phantom Control" Fujiwara said to himself. In a flash, there was a blackened human "spirit" standing next to Fujiwara's body. His real body still stood as it did before he activated the jutsu.

"Pretty cool hunh?." The spirit said. It didn't have a true mouth but could still communicate and sure enough the voice was Fujiwara's. Ishimaru was for once speechless, and Morita was gasping in amazement. It was a very cool thing to see.

Fujiwara did another hand sign and released the jutsu. His "phantom" was sucked back into his body. He blinked a few times and was fully back.

"That's so cool man." Seito gave him a high-five. "So, Morita how bout you tell us about you?' Seito asked.

"Well, my name is Morita Idoe. I use lightning nin-jutsu. I also use genjutsu sometimes. But mostly I stick to the ninjutsu. I also like to set traps. Like when Ishimaru here fell into a pit that I made. I'm surprised he didn't see it." Morita laughed.

"I forgot my glasses that day and legally blind without these goggles. It wasn't funny." Ishimaru said disgruntled.

"Okay, now Ishimaru your turn." said.

"Well, My name is Ishimaru Akira and I am god's gift to the ladies." He was interrupted by Morita snorting trying not to laugh. He stared at her for a second and continued. "I use ice-style ninjutsu by combining water and air. I also have really bad eyesight, so I am not to good with throwing stuff. So, I make up for that by doing strength training everyday."

"Well I guess I should tell you a little about myself. I am 27 years old. I was a chuunin during the Akatsuki war. I actually graduated with Naruto and all his friends. We dropped out of the first chuunin exam during the Second part. But, during the Sound invasion during the third exam, I lost a teammate so me and my remaining teammate took the exam with a friend of ours who wasn't on a team because of a broken leg. We passed the second time though. I got to the semifinals of the third exam and lost, but I was still promoted. I use a kekkai genkai which allows me to use light as a weapon. I am happily married to my wife of 6 years and have a 3 year old son and a daughter who just turned 1. Okay. Well, I am gonna take the rest of the day off and figure out the best way to train you guys. Go have fun."

"God's gift to the ladies?" Fujiwara said, trying not to laugh. Morita burst out laughing.

"Shut up guys."

"OKAY, EVERYBODY. HOW ARE WE DOING?" Dosu yelled as he walked into the place where he wanted to meet his new team. Ichiraku ramen shop. A favorite of his. The three new genin ducked as if they were being attacked. Juro almost grabbed his swords. Kane had a senbon poised. Haru had his face in his hands. Dosu was odd to look at. He had on a sweatshirt underneath his jounin vest. The front was pulled up but you could see that the lower part of Dosu's face was in a modified baklava.

"Good." The three of them said quietly.

"Four of your specials. I'm buying for my new team." Dosu said.

"Coming right up." The owner Teuchi said.

"So, how bout you tell me about yourselves." Dosu said as he waited for his meal.

Juro went first. "Well, my name is Juro Yamanaka." Juro started.

"Are you related to Ino?" Dosu interrupted.

"Yeah, she's my cousin. Well, I know the Mind Switch Jutsu the Yamanaka speciality. Buy usually I use taijutsu and these swords to finish people off. My dad perfected the jutsu and know I can do damage to a person's body without harming mine."

"Okay… Yes it's ready!" Dosu screamed as his ramen came. The three genin rolled their eyes.

"Okay… I'll go next. My name is Haru Hyuuga. I'm not in the main branch of the Hyuuga clan, but about 5 years ago the Hokage truly learned of the seals and she banned the cursed seals on branch family members. I use the Byakugan and Gentle Fist Style. I would like to

Dosu slurped up his first bowl and nodded. He motioned for a second serving.

"Well… I'm Kane Ryuu. I use poison and ninjutsu like Shizune-sensei. My specialty is the poison mist jutsu. I also like to develop new poisons. My dream is to become like Chiyo or Tsunade and msater every poison I can." Kane finished and looked in horror at Dosu. He had already finished three bowls and was working on a fourth.

Team 6 then saw why Dosu had his baklava around his lower face. It was completely blackened. The kids grimaced.

"Oh My God. What happened?" Kane asked.

"I was on a border patrol mission when I was a chuunin about 8 years ago. I had to engage a jounin and had an opportunity to use the Great Fireball Jutsu on him. Unforgettably a comrade of his got above me and threw a paper bomb at my mouth. It blew up and burned the lower part of my face and most of my torso. The medical core managed to save my body but most me of me looks like charcoal. I was inactive for about a year. After that I took the jounin exam and passed. I then started plang around with this crossbow here and found out I'm a pretty good shot so I like to use this in surprise attacks. That's my life story pretty much." Dosu finished.

When Dosu had eaten his fill of ramen. He told everyone to meet at the training grounds at 7 in the mourning.

"So, how are you guys doing today?" Inari asked as she walked up to team 9. They were instructed to meet Inari. Inari was a new jounin instructor. She had became a chuunin at 13 and a jounin at 18. This was her first jounin team. She was also the youngest team leader at 19. She also looked like Ino's younger sister. In fact, they had to do a mission a couple weeks ago where they posed as the exact same thing.

"So tell me about yourselves." asked as she moved her hair out of her eyes.

Sora started, "My name is Sora Ouensu. I work with summoning tigers. I also have a ninjutsu where I grow claws and get a lot faster. It kind of makes me like a tiger."

Imari nodded. She remembered what other jounin looked like when they do stuff like that. It should be interesting. She turned to Hikaru.

"My name is Hikaru Doora. I use the puppet master justu that the Sand brought over a couple years ago. I summon the puppets when I need them since they weigh so much. I am the only one in the Leaf that perfected in though." Hikaru finished.

"Well, my name is Takashi Nikliusu. My family is originally from the Sand, but we came here when Gaara was kidnapped by the Akatsuki because we are afraid. My dad knew a justu that used Sand like people here use other elements. He taught that to me and know I carry around that big jar of dirt."

"How did you get your cut?" Imari asked. Takashi has a huge scar running down his face that went through his eye.

"Ah, yes. Well, I'm lucky I can still see in this eye. I got this first day in the Academy, when Sora over here was trying out her new tiger jutsu. I was the dummy unfortunately."

Sora grinned cheaply and shrugged. "I said sorry so many times though."

"I know."

"Well I guess it's my turn. My name is Imari Higoshi. I am 19 years old have been a jounin for 18 months. This is my first squad. I specialize in wind style ninjutsu. I am not Ino's long lost twin sister as many have said. I like to play soccer and run long distance. I have done 2 marathons and about 50 5ks or 10ks. It's pretty fun. That's really just about it. Well, you guys are such a good team. I'll see you guys tomorrow for training." Imari said.

**THE NEXT DAY. AGAIN.**

Team 1 was at Training Ground 2. It was in the middle of a field, with a little stream running through it.

Team 1 was told by Shikamaru to come ready for training. Amane had a long sleeve black shirt on with camo pants. He had kunai holsters on both of his legs and had two pouches on his belt. He also carried two short swords that were holstered on his lower back right above his belt. He had boots on instead of the sandals because he had broken some toes before. He had a sock cap on with the Leaf symbol on the back. His hair was jutting down underneath the cap.

Seinosuke wore a gray oversized sweatshirt. The hood was up and he wore a bandana over his mouth. His leaf headband was around his right arm. He had gray pants on with black stripes around the knees. His kunai holster was on his right leg with a pouch on right leg. He wore the normal sandals.

Chitose had her long blue(yes blue) hair straight down. Her blue sweatshirt with white stripes across the sleeves and body was her choice for battle. She wore black pants and had her kunai holster on her right leg. She also had pouches on her belt. She wore normal sandals and had her headband on her head.(SURPRISE).

Nozomi had a black long sleeve shirt on with slim golden stripes running down the arms and larger patches on the shoulders. He had on his jounin vest and his headband was on his forehead. He had the standard dark blue pants and he had ankle braces on. He had specialized sandals to accommodate the braces. He wore plastic goggles so his glasses wouldn't break.

"So what are we doing boss?" Amane asked.

"Your gonna try and get these bells." had held 3. "This test is a standard in the Leaf Village after Kakashi introduced it. The point is to work together as a team to fight me and get the three bells. So, go" He said as he did hand signs and jumped in the air. The three scattered.

Team 2 was at another training ground getting explained the same rules by Seito.

Fujiwara had his baklava on. He wore a gray long sleeve shirt under a black sleeveless shirt. He had black cargo pants with kunai holsters on both legs. Morita definitely thought he played the role of freak. His pitch black eyes surveyed the battle field. His headband was wrapped right above his right leg.

Ishimaru had his goggles on his head. They were basically ski goggles but he modified them so they cover his own line of sight. He had a dark blue sweatshirt with white trim. He wore light gray pants with darker gray lines going diagonally down them. He had his kunai holster on his left leg. With his shuriken pouch on the same side. Ishimaru also wore boots. His headband was on his right arm.

Morita wore a white t-shirt, but with a small black vest over it. She had a wristband above her elbow. The t-shirt stopped right above her midsection. She wore really long gray shorts that went past her knees. There was a small lightning bolt on the right leg. She wore her kunai holster on her left legs. She wore fishnet stockings with her sandals. She wore her headband in an interloping cloth across her lap.

Seito had a plain white t-shirt on with his jounin vest. He had arm guards on the lower part on his forearms. He had black pants on with knee pads and shin guards underneath his pants. His forehead protector was on his head with his blond, almost white, hair neatly cut.

Seito waited until his new team was ready and started the bell test. His new students scattered around the forest training area. Seito set up a clone and looked around to set himself up.

Dosu was 10 minutes late to the training ground. Kane, Haru, and Juro were already there. Dosu had his black sweatshirt on and the hood over his head. The baklava was around the burned part of his face. He had black shorts on with a tactical belt filled with his tools. He had regular sandals on and his forehead protector was wrapped just above his knee.

Haru had the normal color for the Hyuuga clan. He had a sweatshirt on with his black t-shirt jutting under. He wore long pants with cuffs around the ankles. He wore the ninja sandals. His headband was wrapped around his right arm. He still had a constantly bored look on his face.

Juro had a purple long sleeve shirt on. He had camo pants on. His swords were on a sheath on his back. He had fingerless gloves on. His kunai holster was on his right leg. Juro had trouble keeping his ponytail, which was almost the same as Ino's ponytail, in check with the rest of his shaggy hair. His headband was around his neck.

Kane had a dark green shirt on that went to her elbows. She had a large hip pouch on which held her poisons. She wore the same type as shorts as Morita wore except she had black triangle patterns on the side of her shorts. She kunai holster was on her right leg. She wore her forehead protector on her forehead. Her hair was parted so you could see the Leaf symbol.

Dosu started the exam. Juro drew his swords. Haru activated his Byakugan. Kane put some distance between herself and Dosu. Dosu was going to enjoy this. He activated his signature jutsu and his hands almost immediately had flames around them

"So do you guys get it?" Imari asked.

"Yep." The three answered.

Imari had her well normal outfit on. She had a red t-shirt with the jounin vest over it. She wore a black skirt that went to about her midthigh. She wore shorts underneath that went slightly further. She had knee braces on both knees. Her kunai holster was taped to her skirt. She wore normal sandals.

Sora had a long sleeve orange shirt on with black tiger stripes running down her left arm. She had orange cargo pants with the same stripes running down both legs. Her kunai holster was on her right leg with her shuriken pouch directly on the back of her belt. Her headband was wrapped around her right arm. She had regular sandals on.

Hikaru was a ninja's ninja. He had a long sleeve black shirt and black pants. He kept his puppet summoning scrolls in his kunai pouch. He was ready to dram them. He wore his forehead protector on his forehead with long cloth descending down. He was ready to go.

Takaski has a sand colored t-shirt on with black sleeves(like Ino wore in part 1) on his forearms. His backpack was unzipped. He had the same color pants on with green stripes below his knees. His kunai holster was on his left leg. He had just shaved his head and had his new forehead protector on his forehead. He wore normal sandals.

All the battles had begun.

**So how was that? I'm gonna try and update once every two weeks. Please comment and tell me what you think. This is a rewrite of the original story with OC jounin's. I didn't like where the story was going so I thought of a way for me to enjoy it more. I hope you still find it interesting to read. I will try to keep the orginal Naruto characters in the story just with minor roles. I thought the way I was writing the characters from the series was just a little too OOC so I decided to scrap the idea and go with this one. But expect Tsunade to have the biggest since she is still the Hokage. Also since school started I might not hit my deadline, but I will try my best. If I start to fall behind I hope you will understand.**

**Cam out.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Bell Test

Well I hoped you liked the first chapter. Number 2 is going to be the infamous bell test. In each test you'll find out the fighting skills of each of the jounin and the new genin. Keep in mind that most of the ninjutsu that the genin might be using are significantly weaker than what you probably have seen. Also, a couple of characters will make the appearance here. Also, Team Dan (Kaz, Manami, Tomu) will not be fighting but they will get a couple chapters in due time. So, let's get this cracka-lackin. Also, all battles are happening at the same time but I'm gonna through the length of one before I get to the others. (And the Akatsuki war hasn't happened yet in the storyline so I'm forced to make a story for it. So bear with me please) also geography is different- that will be explained.

Nozomi had no sooner jumped into the air, when Amane, Seinouske and Chitose had scrambled into the small area of woods around the training ground where they had met Nozomi. Chitose bumped into someone.

"Wha… Naruto-sensei?" Chitose asked scared. Naruto had been standing at the bottom of a tree watching the team. Naruto had grown up significantly since the Akatsuki War started 10 years ago. It only took the Shinobi Alliance to get rid of Madara. Zetsu surrendered the day after. Kabuto was disposed of by Madara about 9 months into the conflict due to Kabuto's inability to lead a large number of troops. The battle against Madara had taken 5 hours. The 5 kages, Naruto, Killer Bee and other leading ninja had combined to take him down with Naruto providing the final blow with a Giant Double Rasengan. The world had been shaken up after that with many smaller countries popping up. Most gained strength during the decade and had shrunken the gap with the 5 great Shinobi nations to the point where the Hidden Sand Village was having continuous trouble with raiders. At least half of the Leaf's missions were sanctioned for border patrol. Heck, the Sound village wasn't even threatening the Leaf Village anymore. The times, they were a changing.

Naruto had matured greatly as well. He had due-fully taken up many responsibilities as Toad Sage and probable 6th hokage. He also taught all the academy students how to use the clone techniques and other variants. He also helped them build traps. Tsunade had not declared a successor but all knew who the 6th would be. He had also married a girl he had met while preparing to battle Madara.

The alliance had lost a battle near a lake in the border of the Mist Country. Naruto was a part of Kakashi's platoon in the later parts of the war. They had been taking names and kicking ass but had lost the battle against Kabuto's second in command near Border Lake, near the three way border of the Mist, Leaf, and Sound Nation. The platoon lost 13 Shinobi of the 40 he had under his command for the campaign. One of those was one of two medical ninja. He had been working on a wounded Shinobi when Naruto left his flank and the guy and the patient were hit by an exploding tag. Naruto took it pretty hard and had been walking around back at Base Camp. A girl his age from the Hidden Mist village had been serving as a messenger because she was a falconer. She had calmed Naruto and he had never forgotten it. Her brother was the funniest guy in the 40 man platoon Naruto lead during the War. They had developed a close relationship and she decided to stay with him after the war. They dated until they were 20 and got married. Their marriage of 6 years had produced two kids, both named after Naruto's parents. Kushina was 5 and Minato was 2.

"Oh. Hi Chitose. What's up?" Naruto asked.

Chitose shook her head. "Nothing just trying not to die. How about you?" She said with just a hint of sarcasm.

"Nothing, just seeing how Nozomi is doing. I'm guessing you're gonna see why they called him "The Flying Thunder God."" Naruto said as he backed up more than a few feet.

"THE WHAT?" Chitose asked scared as she looked up in the air and saw Nozomi flying through the air at an alarming amount of speed at her. She ducked down as fast as she could and covered her head. Nozomi flew above her and bounced off the tree behind her.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Whats' up Noz."

Nozomi hopped off the tree and stood over Chitose. "This is when you go and look for another place to hide." Chitose scrambled to her feet and took off running.

Amane was up in a tree on the other side of the training ground. He had found a good climbing tree and had gotten to the top. He had always liked climbing trees and had gotten up just in time to see Chitose scared. Amane and Seinosuke were 4th and 2nd in the class respectively. He personally thought the teams should have been split up since the rest of the top 4 were. Haru, who was 1st and Sora who was 3rd were split up, but Morita and Fujiwara were 5th and 6th so Amane couldn't really figure out how the teams were made. But anyways, Amane was currently sitting in a tree about 20 feet above the ground where he was most comfortable. He was a taijutsu specialist with a little bit of earth style ninjutsu. He was a boxer though and usually only kicked when he had a huge opening. He also liked jiu-jitsu and was deadly if he ever took someone down to the ground. He put a sleeper hold on someone in the class after a taijutsu fight went to the ground. He was out for 2 hours.

Amane was planning what to do. He knew he didn't stand a chance against the jounin. Amane had brains though. His I.Q. was 170. His downfall was that he only did something when he knew he would win. His conditiong was below average also.

Amane was having a hard time figuring out what to do so he decided to wait and watch.

Seinosuke on the other hand had already summoned Kuroda, his personal summon. Kuroda was a jackal who had been working with him for two years. Kuroda was four.

"So what's the plan kid?" Kuroda asked.

"Well, I say we do the Fang over Fang and force him into an open position and maybe Amane will take him on and wrestle the bells away from him. He might be strong enough to do it." Seinosuke said. Kuroda nodded.

"How strong is the kid?" Kuroda asked. He had only seen Amane once and that wasn't in battle. Amane was just over for dinner.

"He stood up and fought Isumu after you left at that dinner. And that was 6 months ago. He spends about an hour a day at the gym. Hitomi was scoring it as an UFC fight and he won a round but lost 29-28 after 3. He took Isumu down 5 times. He may not look like one but the kid is an ox." Seinosuke said. Even though Seinosuke was almost two years younger and about six inches shorter than Amane, he called him the kid. Seinosuke weighed in at 175. He always was a little hefty.

Kuroda nodded. Seinosuke's two older brothers were both jounin but Hitomi didn't fight and Isamu just took that position that day, which is why they had the dinner in the first place.

"So let's do this then." Kuroda said showing his teeth.

"Agreed" Seinosuke nodded showing his pointed canines as well. "Fang Over Fang" Seinosuke yelled and charged at Nozomi who was walking back into the open area of the training area. He heard Seinosuke and easily dodged the attack.

"Oh yeah, Ando, I forgot about you used dogs like the Inuzukas. Almost got me." Nozomi said pushing his glasses back up. "I guess I can deal with you before taking out the kid in the tree."

Seinosuke heard a rather audible "Son of a…" before a slight thud meaning Amane had gone somewhere else to hide.

"Try it." Seinosuke said. But before he could move, Nozomi was already on them.

"Okay." Two quick jabs and Seinosuke was down for the count. Kuroda hopped out of the clearing and went to find Amane. Nozomi motioned to Naruto, who was still watching, and asked him to get Seinosuke out of there. Naruto took him to the bench beneath a string of three trees in the middle of the training area.

"Man this kid is heavy." Naruto said.

Chitose was actually underneath one of the benches.

"He's gonna go after Amane. Man, Nozomi isn't making it easy on you guys at all." Naruto said after realizing she was there.

"Ya think?!" Chitose almost screamed at him as she rolled out from under the bench. Nozomi had disappeared into the woods.

"Yeah, but he'll get a lot nicer once you get out of this Bell Test. He is the best from what I here." Naruto reassured her.

"What's going on?" Naruto turned his head and smiled to the owner of the voice.

"What's up Neji? Why are you here?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I always wanted to see the kid who can supposedly take on a jounin in a taijutsu match fight. And Haru needed me to pick something up from the kid. So I came down to check." Neji replied in his calm demeanor.

Neji had also grown up drastically. After getting rid of the grand delusions of fate and all, he had become very good friends with Naruto. He was also the new head of the side branch of the Hyuuga clan. Neji was in a platoon with all Leaf ninja during the war. They were statistically the best, since they only lost 1 ninja but were stuck in a draw with a group of Akatsuki ground soldiers for 10 months of the war and was left combat ineffective for most of the War. After that, Neji came back to find that the Hyuugas had put him in charge of the Side Branch. He was the one that originally went to Tsunade with the idea of getting the Cursed Seal banned. It was a dangerous idea but it worked, even though Neji was almost killed twice by main branch members after the idea went public, but Tsunade eventually put him under guard and she banned the Cursed Seal, which worked out well for the Hyuuga clan in the long run.

"Well, Nozomi are giving the other two hell right now, so it might take a while. He already knocked this one out. He gave the other a chance to do better and the third I haven't seen." Naruto said after laying Seinosuke down.

"Oh. Well I guess I'll just come back later. He probably won't be up to it. Dosu is doing the same thing with his new squad." Neji said as he turned to leave. "See you later, Naruto."

"Ok. See ya man." Naruto replied as he sat on the bench. "You might wanna get out of here, Chitose, and go hide. I think there is a small creek to the east of here. You might be able to try one of your ninjutsus." Naruto said. He helped the kids in this year's class develop a ninjutsu. After finding out their elemental chakra, he taught or helped develop a low-level ninjutsu. Chitose used water style ninjutsu.

"Really? Cool. Ok well wish me luck." Chitose said as she jogged into the forest to look for the creek.

Naruto nodded and sat down on the bench to keep an eye on the unconscious Seinosuke.

"Man, Nozomi. Didn't think you had it in ya." Naruto said to himself.

Amane was currently planning his plan of attack. He didn't know about Seinosuke so he was trying to find him to help him attack.

'Damn, where is that kid?' Amane thought to himself when a familiar jackal came out of the bushes.

"Amane, right?" Kuroda asked.

"Yeah. Kuroda right?" Amane asked in return with a confused look on his face. 

"Correct. Follow me. The jounin is right behind us." Kuroda said as he took off running. Amane followed him. They got out just in time. Three kunai went flying through the bush and embedded themselves in a tree.

'He's playing for keeps.' Amane thought to himself while following Kuroda to a small hidey-hole. They ducked into the overhang and waited. Nozomi shrugged.

"I guess I'll go look for the blue-haired one." He said to himself. He then left to look for the other conscious member of team 1.

"So, what's the plan, dog?" Amane asked.

"Okay, first I'm a jackal. Get it right. Second. We need to get Seinosuke up. Luckily, I know where to get some smelling salt." Kuroda said as he looked around. "Chubbs might hate us for it, but it'll get him up."

Amane laughed. "You call him Chubbs too? I gotta tell Takashi about this man." Amane said. Kuroda stared. Amane calmed down. "So where is this smelling salt?"

"About half a mile away. In another hidey-hole here. Seinosuke's father trains around here and likes to keep some on hand. So we better get going." Kuroda said as he sniffed around the outside of the hole. Nozomi was nowhere around.

"Let's move." Kuroda said. Amane followed him again.

Chitose had found the creek Naruto had been talking about. She set up a 6 ft perimeter around her with light bombs. Nozomi would have to attack from above to get around the light bombs and Chitose knew that. She kept a watchful eye on the sky from under a slight overhang in the creek bed.

'God, this is so boring. But, if I let my guard down I'll be out like a light, just like Seinosuke.' Chitose thought to herself. She almost considered reading a book but Nozomi could probably take way too much advantage of that and since Chitose preferred to remain alive, she kept her guard up. She looked up at the sky and saw that there were some clouds coming over to her area.

'That's weird. There wasn't supposed to be any…OH CRAP' Chitose thought as she saw an all too familiar figure descending rapidly.

"FLYING THUNDER GOD" Nozomi yelled at the top of his lungs. Electricity began forming on his hands.

'This isn't good…' Chitose thought as she estimated the distance between her and Nozomi. Chitose jumped and triggered the light bombs.

"What the crap? AUGHH" Nozomi said. The light bombs had blinded him. All he saw was white. 'This is very bad. These don't wear off for 10 minutes. Anything could happen in that time. He had to make sure no one attacked him.

'God. I can't believe she pulled that on me. I guess I underestimated these genin. I shouldn't have let the kid with the glasses out of my sight. This could be very bad. I might never leave this little creek here. I'll call it the Village Hidden Behind the Overhang in Some Creek in the Hidden Leaf Village. Yeah.' Nozomi drifted out into crazy thought as he tried to recover from the light bomb temporarily blinding him. He told himself to never let himself fall for another light bomb.

Chitose made it back to the camp. Naruto was still standing near the tree watching Amane and Kuroda were trying to get Seinosuke back to his senses. The smelling salt worked but Seinosuke was trying to get it back together. It worked a little too well apparently. He jumped up.

"Oh. My. God. What was that stuff?" Seinosuke said blinking trying to regain his sense.

"Smelling salt." Kuroda replied.

"That stuff would wake up a dead horse." Seinosuke said rubbing his forehead. His sweatshirt was off and his bandana off. Many a girl would kill to see that even if you could see his real weight. It was a healthy weight. But they real surprise was his hair. He had it cut like a Mohawk. The sides were very short with a longer strip in the middle. The style had caught on. Takashi wore it as well. All-in-all, Seinosuke just looked like a normal kid without any of his standard ninja clothes on. Chitose thought it was weird, like seeing Amane without his sunglasses and hat or Ishimaru without his goggles.

"So what's the plan. I got him with a light bomb so we have about 7 minutes to plan how to get those bells." Chitose stated.

"Well how are the four of us gonna do that? We graduated from the academy a couple days ago. There is no way we can beat him. Even if we teamed up on him." Amane said shaking his head. "Not a chance."

"Not so fast man. I got a plan." Seinosuke said as he put his jacket back on and went to get his bandana to tie it on. "I think we can pull some seriously cool shit off here today. So everyone gather round and listen it." Seinosuke said as he tied the bandana. The team leaned in to listen.

A couple minutes later the plan was in place. Seinosuke and Kuroda were under the bench successfully hidden from the angle Nozomi would probably approach. Amane was in the same tree he was earlier. Chitose was hiding in a bush on the other side of the clearing.

'This is the best we got? We're screwed. Why am I even up here?' Amane thought to himself.

'This better work.' Chitose thought.

"O.K. Kuroda, time to shine." Seinosuke said to his jackal partner.

"We will." Kuroda said.

As if on cue Nozomi came walking into the clearing scratching his head. "That's the last time that ever happens. Good thing K didn't see that. He would give me hell." Nozomi muttered. He looked up and saw Naruto sitting at the bench. "What are you still doing here man?"

"Just waiting to see the Grand Finale." Naruto said.

"Whatever. I'll have these kids done in five minutes." Nozomi said finally shaking off the effects of Chitose's flash bomb.

"NOW!" Seinosuke yelled. Kuroda and Seinosuke did the hang signs and pulled off the Fang Over Fang. Chitose threw a kunai with a flash bomb on it. It stuck to Nozomi.

'Shit.' Nozomi said to himself. Seinosuke and Kuroda each got out of the way of the flash bomb after recovering from the missed Fang Over Fang. Nozomi was blinded again. Amane hopped down from the tree.

'Here goes everything.' Amane thought to himself as Nozomi blocked his first jab. Amane then tried to sweep his legs. Nozomi jumped up. Seinosuke rushed in. He grabbed Nozomi midair and pulled him down. *POOF*

"Shadow clone?!" Amane said. He looked around trying to locate the real Nozomi. Too late. Nozomi had dropped from behind and delieved a blow to his neck. Amane fell to the ground.

*POOF* Amane's clone poofed away and Nozomi was put back on the defensive. 'Those two were in the top 5 this year. Should have seen that coming.' Nozomi thought. He remembered Amane's file. 10/10 taijutsu. 6/10 ninjutsu. 5/10 genjutsu. Amane once took down a chuunin that was making fun of a kid in the class. Sure the chuunin had been caught off guard, but he should have been able to fight off an academy student. Amane finished him in less than a minute. Once he knocked him down,. Amane put the kid in a sleeper hold. Two of the jounin instructors had pull him off the kid. But the chuunin did go too far with the kid. Last time anybody shoved a academy student down again while Amane was there.

Nozomi circled back around and examined where the three were. They all went back into the forest. Nozomi dropped back down. That's when the three charged out of the forest.

"Fang Over Fang!" Seinosuke and Kuroda had already started the rotation.

Amane was waiting for Seinosuke to finish his attack. He had a pair of short sword unsheathed and ready to go.

Chitose was standing at Amane's left. She had a variation of a kunai knife. It had a subtle hook towards the end.

Seinosuke's attack missed Nozomi and Amane and Chitose ran in. Nozomi hopped in the air. The three genin stood in a triangle like formation looking at Nozomi, who was on his way down. A plan jumped into Nozomi's head. 'Time to finish this.' He thought. He landed in the middle of the three genin. They were about to make their move when Nozomi revealed his plan. Three shadow clones appeared behind the three. A quick jab and each was knocked out.

"Well Done, Nozomi. Where did the shadow clones come from?" Naruto asked.

"I made them when I circled into the forest real quick like. I was gonna have them come in earlier. But I got the three genin to pause ever so slightly when I landed in the middle of them, so they came in and took care of the job." Nozomi said as the shadow clones poofed out of existence. "They fought great though man. Lot of potential. I didn't see the bigger kid and the girl's ninjutsu though. I thought they were in the top 5 in that category."

"Yeah, well you didn't use a whole lot of it either." Naruto said.

"Yeah, well I didn't want to shock these kids." Nozomi laughed at his pun. "I wonder how the other jounin are doing with their kids in this test." Naruto shrugged

Seito had set up some clones to look for Ishimaru, Fujiwara, and Morita who had scattered into the forest. He had to keep an eye out for Fujiwara. The phantom jutsu was very dangerous if someone had the proper training. Fujiwara's grandfather created the thing so Seito had to watch out. Morita and Ishimaru's jutsus would be easier to spot since Ishimaru had to do a snowfall jutsu even to get enough snow for his jutsu. Morita had to get clouds over so she could direct or redirect lightning. Seito had to make sure there were no clouds forming and keep an eye out for menacing black shadows and this would be a walk in the park with no surprises. As long as he didn't have to start using his kekkai genkai or light release jutsu, it would be a good day. The light release jutsu allowed Seito to gather in light from the sun and redirect it or turn it into a spear or such.

'Man, they are really teaching those kids how to flee.' Seito thought to himself. He leaned back against a tree. 'No use trying to hunt them down. Might as well wait till one of them thinks they can get a jump on me. Too easy man. I'll be home in time for lunch with the wife and kids.' Seito was 27. He was one of the kids from Naruto's class that wasn't really heard of until he became a jounin. A couple people still don't remember him. He sat behind Chouji for like two years. But what can you say, those 9 got so much publicity. Seito sighed and continued to wait for a definitely ill-advised attack.

"Hey, Seito. What's up man?" A familiar voice to him asked. Seito turned around to see the familiar faces. Chouji and Shikamaru stood above him.

"Hey, what's up guys? What are you doing around here?"

"Well ,we were getting back from a mission and cutting through the forest to get to Chouji's favorite barbeque and saw of your genin. Well, I should say we saw about half of him. Freaked the shit out of Chouji here." Shikamaru said.

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE KID WAS FREAKING NEGATIVE MAN FROM THE COMIC-BOOK!" Chouji yelled at his best friend. Shikamaru closed his eyes and shook his head.

Even though Chouji had his moments, just like Naruto, he had grown up the most of the Konoha 11. Chouji was now the tallest at 6'4" and he had 247 pounds to back that up. He had become a menacing part of the Hidden Leaf Village battle strategy. He was kept at Border Patrol during the Akatsuki-Sound War and had received a citation from all of the kages of the alliance for stopping a Sound raid that was responsible for the massacre of a POW camp the Sound was keeping. Chouji, Ino, Hinata, and two jounins had gotten the jump on the 10 raiders. The raiders didn't stand a chance. Chouji had since became a jounin and the spitting image of his father. He didn't mind that though.

Shikamaru had also matured. He still could care less about many things and would rather be watching clouds right now than doing anything else but he took on some of the traits of his late sensei Asuma. Not only had he turned down offers to be one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja multiple times now, but he found his dream girl, right here in the village too. Sure a lot of people thought him and Temari would find a way to settle down, but Temari and him were very good friends, nothing more. Sure she would flirt with him until he was about ready to slap her, but they were great friends and nothing more. Shikamaru actually ran into his future wife at a 4-H contest pretty much. He had lost a bet with Ino, Temari, and his mother and had to wear fake antlers to an animal trade show. Shikamaru had to negotiate with a medicinal company to buy some deer which could be devolped for medicine. Of course, only two were interested since Shikamaru could only sell to a company that would only sell in the Leaf nation. An old friend of him introduced him to the championship rabbit breeder and no one knew how, but they hit it off and started dating. Sure they were almost exact opposites. Kaminari had blond hair and the most outgoing and nice personality you could find and Shikamaru was… Shikamaru. They got married when they were 21. Shikamaru and Kaminari Nara had a 5 year old son and another child on the way. The house was like a petting zoo though.

"So you ran into Fujiwara, hunh?" Seito asked smiling.

"Yeah. Kid is a freak." Chouji said. "Well, now we better order some pizza."

"Why?" Shikamaru and Seito asked. Both were confused.

Chouji smiled. "We got to see how fast Seito can take care of these kids."

Seito laughed. "Yeah, we'll see. If you want to see a show go watch Nozomi."

"He'd be done before we got there." Shikamaru said wrangling his cell phone out of his pocket. "Where should we get the pizza from? Z's?"

"You know it man." Chouji said as he sat down against a tree.

Seito rolled his eyes. Here he was trying to measure the skill of three genin and Shikamaru and Chouji were having a picnic. Typical.

Fujiwara and Morita had stuck together while Ishimaru had decided to go out on his own like the idiot he was.

"So, how should we do this?" Morita asked to what was left of Fujiwara. His real body was scouting around. Fujiwara couldn't make his real body talk. He could communicate through the shadow though.

"Well, I say we wait for Ishimaru to make a bonehead move and attack when Seito-sensei is distracted, we go in." Fujiwara said.

"O.K." Morita said. Morita looked over the phantom again. "You look so freaky like that. How does that even work?" Morita said. Fujiwara laughed.

"I know it's freaky and to tell you the truth. My grandpa ,who developed the justu, was just messing around when he messed up some hands signs trying to do another justu, and BOOM this happened. He was just focusing and this happened. It's cool though."

"I guess." She replied.

Ishimaru had his attack plan set. After taking the bells, he would of course become a god among genin and probably be automatically promoted. After scoring numerous chicks, Ishimaru would become a legend. This was all how the afternoon was gonna play out. Ishimaru smiled to himself as he hopped from tree to tree. Since the Academy age was raised from 12 to 13, so the Academy could teach the kids more. Ishimaru, they had found out, even though being toward the bottom in most of the categories, had excellent Chakra control. Since he had to form snow from water vapor for all of his ninjutsu, he managed to climb the tree on his first shot. He also had already mastered the walk on water jutsu.

Ishimaru finally got to a tree a couple of yards away. This is where he could start forming the smow. He finally got to the point where he didn't have to make clouds to form the snow. This was a disadvantage and he finally turned it into a advantage for him, finally a break for the kid. He was already legally blind without his prescription goggles, and even though he thought he had a sweet 'stache, he was one of the bottom graduates this year. He was finally gonna prove his worth.

He edged his way to the end of the branch and focused his chakra to his feet. Seito didn't notice him up there, in fact, he was talking with Shikamaru and Chouji whose pizza had arrived.

"And that's is why I can't walk into the northern part of the Forest Nation legally." Seito said.

"So the part with the heavy metal band and the comic were…" Chouji asked.

"Completely true. I have to say I have never had more fun in my life. Even through the part where we got chased by wolves through a mall. I need to call those guys sometime." Seito finished.

"That's fucked up, man." Shikamaru said finally with no emotion in his face or voice, probably because of the harrowing exploits he had just learned from his fellow jounin.

Ishimaru shook off whatever he had just heard and started to do some hand signs. "Snow Release Snow Fall Jutsu." Ishimaru know had to concentrate to make the snow form from water vapor in the air. After a while, he could use the snow to perform his advanced jutsu. The Raptor Blizzard. Sure, it was definitely not the strongest jutsu in the world, but it would definitely give you a nasty case of frostbite and knock you out if you couldn't avoid it. A shadow clone of an instructor at the academy demonstrated the effects.

'Hey this is gonna be easier than I thought.' Ishimaru thought as he did the hand signs for the snow fall justu. This jutsu activated and immediately small flakes began to form.

Ishimaru just had to wait now. He put the camo blanket on and started his figuring out his acceptance speech for World's Greatest Ninja.

Fujiwara's body, Morita, and Fujiwara's phantom were walking/floating along a path. They saw the snow beginning to fall.

"Well, Ishimaru's started his attack. Let's just wait for Seito-sensei to start working him over and then we can get it and try and swipe the bells. That's the only way we can possibly get those things." Fujiwara said.

"I guess that might work." Morita said as she twirled a strand of her blond hair and sighed. This was very boring to her. Hopefully she could connect with these guys or at least Fujiwara. Shouldn't be too hard.

A couple inches of snow had now fallen. Seito, Shikamaru, and Chouji had noticed.

"Ah, you have that kid. He really screwed up a shadow clone of Kozan. Don't let him use the jutsu he is setting up for. I start looking if I were you." Shikamaru said.

"Yeah. I remember. But he can't hide when I activate my jutsu. These eyes are special boys. I'll get him in no time. I wonder if I can see the phantom kid though. Oh, well. Guess we'll find out soon enough." Seito said as he did a hand sign and closed his eyes.

"Light Release. Specialization."

When Seito opened his eyes, all was white. No pupils, no anything. Just white. But it shone with a gold tint.

"God. How in the hell do you do that?" Chouji asked as he finished his first pizza.

"Don't know. Don't care. Just like it." Seito answered. Seito in fact had a very interesting kekkai genkai. He had traced his family line to back before the founding of the Hidden Leaf Village. His great-great-great-great grandfather had been a Hyuga and his great-great-great-great grandmother apparently had a special Light Release jutsu. The two had combined and over the years had trickled down to Seito. Seito's eyes had a very simple form of the Byakugan, but he could also look for the Thermal release of the body. He could also see perfectly at night. Yes, these eyes were special. Seito was still working on the more advanced forms of his kekkai genkai.

Seito looked around the area using the thermal part of his jutsu. He found Ishimaru in a minute.

"I got him." Seito said. "He's behind a tree. I can't believe we didn't pick up on him."

"Well, Kozan said he had excellent chakra control when Tsunade, Naruto, some other jounin, and I were making the teams. Kozan said if he could figure out the rest of the equation, he could be the best kid in the class. His vision keeps him back too." Shikamaru said.

"Yeah, but the Freeze kicks a hell of a punch." Chouji said in between bites.

"Yeah, but that ain't gonna happen." Seito replied as he hopped up to go get Ishimaru.

"Whatever." Shikamaru said.

Seito still had his eyes set to thermal mode and narrowing down Ishimaru. Ishimaru had made a clone which had put an exploding tag on it that gave it warmth. He now had to look for him throughout all the surrounding forest. There was about a foot of snow on the ground now and Seito was starting to shiver.

'This is ridiculous. I'm really starting to get pissed.' He thought to himself.

Morita shared that thought. "What the hell is he doing. Doesn't he know I have shorts and a really short t-shirt on? What is wrong with him. You guys are wearing like, layers, and stuff. I gotta be fast." Morita said jumping around trying to stay warm.

"Well, that is his jutsu. Tomu Ara does the same stuff. I don't fell the cold so, yeah…sorry." Fujiwara said as he floated on. His real body was walking a couple steps behind.

"If Seito-sensei doesn't kill him, I will. BRRR." Morita shivered big time. "Why can't I have fire jutsu?" Fujiwara shook his head. Maybe she'll come prepared next time.

"Well, now we just wait for Ishimaru to attack and we move. So what are you gonna do?" Fujiwara asked.

"Well, probably use my charge jutsu to put an electric charge on some shuriken and aim for the bells. If that doesn't work I'll go with the direct attack and try and get an Lightning strike on him." Morita was the only academy student in about 5 years to have a Lightning affinity. It was pretty rare in the Hidden Leaf village and she was definitely in store to learn some cool lightning moves later on.

"Cool. I'll probably just mess with him. That's how I do it." Fujiwara said.

Morita chuckled. "Yeah, I remember the first time you showed everyone that. Kane and Chitose almost fainted and Juro couldn't look at you the same for like a week. Hopefully Seito won't know what to do with it the first time he sees you fight." She replied.

"Yeah, hopefully. The plan does kind of revolve on Ishimaru's attack kind of working and that's what I'm afraid of. If that freeze attack doesn't at least kind of hit Seito-sensei, then we have no chance." Fujiwara said.

"Yep. He better get this right. If I have to walk through any more snow I will rip that peach fuzz little mustache off."

"You do that." Fujiwara said as he nodded.

Ishimaru had enough snow to try and attack Seito. He wouldn't do the full attack because it would drain his chakra. And the attack might give Seito permanent frostbite. So, he would have to cut back. Ishimaru eventually decided to go with a weaker ninjustu.

"Okay. Let's do this." Ishimaru did the hand signs necessary. "Snow Release. Blizzard." The wind began to howl and the snow started falling more rapidly. The temperature also dropped.

Morita felt the change and shivered. "That's it. He's dead."

Fujiwara rolled his eyes. "Here. Take the sweatshirt off my real body. I gotta a long-sleeve shirt underneath anyways." Morita's eyes lit up.

"Oh! Thank you, Fujiwara." Morita exclaimed. Fujiwara's body took off his odd sweatshirt. It had one gray sleeve and one black one with a gray body. Fujiwara's mother wore a similar one.

"No problem. I don't feel the cold like this, so you should have it. Ishimaru must be up to something."

"Yeah." She said as she put the sweatshirt on. She nodded. "That's better."

Ishimaru now had his blizzard going. He was fine of course with his pack. He had a ski mask and gloves along with his clothes being thermal to start with. A lot of people wouldn't call Ishimaru a genius but he came prepared.

Seito was still trying to find Ishimaru with his eyes. But Ishimaru's thermal outfit made it extremely hard. He could have started looking for Fujiwara and Morita but Morita would be too easy to find and he couldn't see Fujiwara anyway, so Ishimaru would have to do for now.

'Damn. The kid has a freaking blizzard going. I better find him before he starts an attack. This is a top priority. I wonder why this kid was toward the bottom of his class? He obviously knows how to attack. This is messed up.' Seito thought to himself. He switched his eyes back to normal to see what the blizzard was doing. He could barely see. He had to switch back.

"This is really starting to piss me off." Seito said to himself. "I wonder how big the blizzard is?"

Tsunade was sitting at her desk. The 5th was now approximately 68 now and people were beginning to pester her about choosing a new Hokage. She said she would retire when she was 70. She was looking out her window at the village.

'Ah. What a great village when nothing is threatening it…. What the hell is that cloud out there?'

Morita and Fujiwara couldn't see now.

"We better wait out Ishimaru's attack. Who knows? Maybe he'll get the bells?" Fujiwara said as he released his jutsu to wait it out. "Damn. It is cold." Fujiwara said.

"No shit. Dumbass." Morita rolled her eyes. "Why do you think I asked for the sweatshirt?"

"Geez. Nevermind I asked." Fujiwara said as he again re activated the justu to get away from the cold.

"So, are we just gonna wait this thing out. Cause I don't know how much longer Ishimaru can do this. I didn't know he was this good even. Do you?" Morita asked as she sat behind a downed tree.

"Yeah. You were sick the first day we did the tree climbing right?" Fujiwara asked. Morita nodded.

"Ishimaru has excellent chakra control. He was up the tree in like 5 minutes. That's why he was sitting out the rest of the week." Fujiwara said.

"Oh. I thought Hisoka-sensei got pissed at him or something." Morita said as she shivered.

"Well, let's just wait this damn snowstorm out." Fujiwara said.

"Agreed." Morita said as she curled up and scooted closer to the tree. Fujiwara sat/floated next to her.

Ishimaru was in heaven…almost. He had Seito exactly where he wanted him. Morita was probably worshipping him by now with his awesome power. Fujiwara was probably in awe too. That phantom was no match for a blizzard. Now Ishimaru just had to make his move on Seito. When he heard him he would stealth his way up to him and take the bells. He would become a god among genin.

*Crunch Crunch* 'Haha' Ishimaru thought to himself. 'He is walking this way. I'm gonna prove to everyone I can do more than just climb trees and affect the weather. I'm gonna be better than everybody.'

Seito was in fact walking this way. Ishimaru temporarily took a glove off and Seito saw the thermal spike. He then switched to his slight Byakugan. All it showed was a slim outline of the person. Ishimaru was still very hard to see but he could track his eyes now. This nightmare was over. Ishimaru started to move to his right and climbed a tree.

Seito then baited him. He stood under the tree and waited. Ishimaru would obviously go for the bells. Seito could catch him when he went for them.

'Finally, I found this kid. He is much better than expected. Not really an attacker though. Which reminds me about the other two… Screw it. I'll just let them attack once and give it to them if I like what I see. That's fair for putting them through this freaking blizzard.' Seito thought to himself. If he didn't get frostbite from this it would be a miracle. Sandals aren't made for snow.

Ishimaru was now diretly above Seito. He still did not know that Seito saw him or even about Seito's eyes. 'Easy as pie.' Ishimaru's last thought of the day. He dived for the bells. Seito saw him and caught him with a roundhouse kick into a tree.

Ishimaru was down for the fight and without his chakra the blizzard started to break up. After a few minutes, the area was completely clear. The snow even started to melt too.

"Well, kid. You put up a great fight. I'd almost give you a bell if this fight wasn't so annoying." Seito said to the unconscious Ishimaru.

**5 MINUTES LATER*****

Morita and Fujiwara were now walking back to where they started. They snow had gone as quickly as it came and the temperature was returning to normal.

"Well. Ishimaru's attack failed. Time to shine, Morita." Fujiwara said.

"Whatever." Morita said as she started doing handsigns.

"What are you doing?" Fujiwara asked.

"Getting ready. The Lightning Strike requires a lot of hand seals. A LOT. And it takes a while to get them all right and if I don't get them all right, the jutsu could backfire or I could miss. Wouldn't want that would we?"

"Uh…No?" Fujiwara said surprised.

"You got that right. Now let's kick some ass."

"Okay. Let's find Seito."

Morita and Fujiwara started walking to where they started. Once they got back to their backpacks they saw Ishimaru leaning against a tree still unconscious.

"Damn. Seito-sensei really worked him over." Morita said.

"Nah. Look. He's only got one sandal mark on him. He only took one kick. And look at that tree over there. I bet Ishimaru was kicked into there."

"Your quite observant. For a genin at least. That's actually exactly what happened. Now how bout you guys just give up so I can go home for the day." Seito said from behind them. Fujiwara and Morita jumped in surprise.

"I don't think so. We are gonna get those bells." Morita had her hands in a hand-sign. "And I'm not leaving till I do! Lightning Strike Jutsu!" Morita activated her justu. Clouds were already rolling in and Morita threw a shuriken at the branch Seito was standing on. It hit and stuck about a foot below his perch.

Seito chuckled. "You're gonna need more than that."

"Don't worry. Lightning has a negative charge. That shuriken is positive. And if I hold the jutsu the Lightning will hit right there in about three…two…one!" Seito's eyes widened. Lightning hit that shuriken. Seito just got out of the way. Fujiwara floated up there with his body to fight Seito. He dropped his body on the same branch and he went around to the other side.

"Just give up sensei. You obviously don't want to fight us. So just give up." Fujiwara said from behind Seito. Seito grinned and *poofed*.

"What the hell?" Morita yelled now furiously trying to look for the real Seito.

"You're right Fujiwara. You guys had me cornered. If I wasn't a jounin of my caliber you would have had me. So because of me being cold as hell and yes, not wanting to continue. I'm going to spare your humiliation and give you the bells because strategically you got me. I will teach you from here on to finish the fight." Seito threw the bells to Fujiwara and Morita. He also threw one into Ishimaru's lap.

"YEEEEEEAAAAHHH!" Morita screamed in joy. She did a little dance in joy. Fujiwara simply pumped his fist.

"We are gonna be awesome ninja!" Morita yelled.

"Don't get too excited. You only won because I gave up. But you three did show a lot of promise. It will be fun to train you guys up." Seito said.

Ishimaru was coming around. "Uhhh… Did we win?"

Dosu had a decision to make on his hands. He could go for Juro first to deal with his swords, but then Haru could probably slip in and cause some damage. Dosu didn't underestimate anyone, especially from such a prodigious clan such as the Hyuuga's. Haru was also one of the top from the class. On the other hand, he could get Haru out of the fight early, but then Juro could come in with his katanas. And Dosu really hated katanas. Brought up a lot of bad memories. A ninja friend from the Hidden Rain received a nice slash by katana and had skin ripped of his face while being tortured. He barely survived. The Rain ANBU found his just in time. He had to wear a baklava like Dosu.

Dosu thought over his plans and released his flame jutsu. He then drew his Crossbow.

'I'm gonna have to fight these kids from long range. If I try to take them on at the same time, one of them is gonna get around my defense and hurt me. I think I'll just sit back and relax and see what they can do. The girl is probably a better long range fighter, I guess I'll just have to see how far she can throw those senbons."

"Well. I think I'll let you guys come to me." Dosu said to the kids and disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Aww, man! Where did he go?" Juro asked.

"I'm looking now. I think he knows where the Byakugan blind spot is. And he moves fast." Haru said as he spun around in a circle. "He is right in the blind spot but I don't know how far away."

"Ah. So what do we do now then?" Kane asked as she walked to her new teammates.

"Well. We have to go look for him obviously." Juro said.

"Yeah, but how are we gonna find him if Haru can't even see him with his Byakugan?" Kane asked.

"We have to spread out and look. Or Juro can use his Mind-Switch jutsu on a hawk or something. That's the only way we have a chance." Haru said as he deactivated the Byakugan and re-ruffled his hair.

"Hey, this is a little off topic Haru, but don't the Hyuugas all have straight black hair? I mean, every time I see your father, or sister, or another Hyuuga, you guys have jet black hair, nice and neat down your back. How come you got such a shaggy head?" Juro asked. Kane looked at him funny. Haru laughed.

"Ya know, Juro. I've wondered that myself. I guess I'm just special." Haru said. "Now let's go get these bells and shove them in Amane's face."

"Woah. Where the heck did that come from?" Kane asked with a shock. "I thought you two were friends?"

"Yeah, well when I used the Byakugan, I saw the three of them getting beat and Amane was up in a tree hiding." Haru replied.

Juro laughed. "Serves them right. I mean how do you put the best 2 guys and best girl in our class together?" Kane stared him down. "Present company excluded of course." He chucked nervously.

"So what's the plan Haru?" Kane asked.

Dosu was also currently hiding in a tree. He was thinking about how he would react when the three came after him if they could find him. 'Hmm. Well let's go over the info on the three." He thought to himself. He pulled out a little book. 'I'm so glad the guys at the Academy make this booklet. Let's see. Team 6. Haru Hyuuga… I know what he can do…Juro Yamamata…relies on swords. I hate swords. Ugh…and Kane

Ryuu…poisons…Great… this team is full of fun."

Dosu sat back and relaxed. Haru couldn't see him because of the burns he had received. Appearantly they were like fourth-degree. Dosu was told we was lucky to be alive on numerous occaisions. They also kind of shielded his chakra. But good luck finding a date when half of you is well-done.

"Well, I guess I'll just wait these kids out until they find me. Then I'll screw with them." Dosu checked his crossbow. 'Yep. Those kids are in for some fun." He thought as he pulled out a book to pass the waiting time.

"How's that gonna work?" Kane yelled. "If you can't find him, no one can."

"You're forgetting about Juro. He can find something to take control of using his Mind Transfer jutsu, he can get some better looks. If we can't find him, we'll just ditch him and leave him a note." Haru said calmly.

"Genius. That will only get used demoted back to the freaking Academy." Kane said. "We can't ditch our new team leader, Haru."

"I think it would be fuuny." Juro said in replied. Kane rolled her eyes.

"So is that the plan then?" Kane asked.

"Unless you guys got something." Haru said.

"Fine. Juro. I'd never thought I would ever say this but It's up to you." Kane said.

"Alright." Juro smiled. "Time to shine". With that Juro did some handsigns and started scanning the skies with his hands. They were already shaped into the gateway needed to transfer his mind to whatever he so pleased. Juro now looked around to find a suitable target.

After a few minutes, Kane and Haru had to start helping look for targets. Either there was a stunning lack of wildlife in this area or Dosu was up to something.

"This is weird." Juro said. "I don't see any remote traces of wildlife. Not even a squirrel or a bird or something."

"I think Dosu is up to something. There is no way that all this wild-life scattered on its own." Kane said finally.

"Well, that only leaves us one choice then…Mind Transfer Jutsu" Juro said as he aimed for Kane.

Kane didn't even turn around "What do you….Sweet, it worked"

Juro's body slumped to the ground.

"Oh God. She is going to kill you." Haru said shaking his head.

"Oh, well. If she does find Dosu-sensei she won't be able to kill me, because she'll be too busy fighting him off." Kane/Juro said.

"Well, the last time I saw him he went west into the forest. Now I'm expecting he knows we say him, so you look east. I'll cover everything else. I'll be right here. If you find him throw a paper bomb in the air. I'll get over there with your body." Haru said.

"Got it." Juro said as he left in Kane's body.

'That kid is a dead man. He really doesn't know about Kane.' Haru thought to himself as he reactivated the Byakugan. 'I wonder how everyone else is doing.'

"Oh God. What happened here?" A voice asked. Haru swung around. It was a chuunin, that Haru had never seen before. Then someone he had scene before appeared from behind the chuunin. "Haru. What are you doing" Hinata asked in her quiet voice.

"Lady Hinata!" Haru immediately bowed. "Oh. Uh…Yeah….Uh…We are doing the Bell Test with Dosu-sensei. Juro here, used his mind-transfer jutsu on our other team mate to help us find our sensei"

"Oh. Well I guess we can watch you guys." Hinata said. Hinata was no longer a Hyuuga but was still a part of the clan's affairs. It took a while for her to get over Naruto. After Naruto came home with his future-wife and Hinata had come home from her citations from the war, it took Hinata a while to get even out of bed. After a couple weeks, she did eventually find the strength to get up. After she realized that Naruto was in love with Mirai, Hinata eventually moved on. And that helped, because about a year after that, she went on a mission with Chouji, Ino, and a jounin named Tenma Yosono. Tenma was a part of the group that Hinata was in in the 4th Great Shinobi War during the mission Hinata and Tenma became better friends. The mission was an infiltration of one of the newly formed villages in the world, to see how things were coming along. Ino posed as a model, Chouji as a competitive eater, and Tenma and Hinata were an engaged couple.

They played the part perfectly and the feelings grew. They came back a couple and in a couple of years they were married. Hiashi made the whole process extremely difficult but once both of them because jounin, he relented and gave his consent. Hinata was currently three months pregnant with the couple's first child.

The two chuunin with her looked around. One was a Hyuuga, the other Haru didn't know.

"So how is the bell exam going?" Hinata asked finally.

"Well…that's the hard part. Dosu-sensei is nowhere to be found. He attacked us once and went into the woods." Haru replied.

"And your Byakugan…" The Hyuuga behind Hinata said (AN: Try saying that five times fast)

"Won't Work" Hinata finished. "During the War, Dosu got burned pretty bad. So bad, that the damage can block his chakra from flowing out of the body. The Byakugan won't see him. The flames he produces is about the only thing he can still do for ninjutsu."

"Ah. So that's why I couldn't see anything." Haru said.

"Hopefully. That kid finds him. What did he use his jutsu on again?" Hinata asked.

"Our third team member. They don't like each other that much." Haru said

Kane/Juro was wandering through the forest where Dosu was last scene. Sure Kane would probably kill him but he would deal with that later.

'Let's see. He was wearing all black with the exception of the vest. I should probably look for his legs. He was wearing shorts, and he didn't have them wrapped so I'll look for that.' Juro thought to himself. However, after 5 minutes of that, Juro started to see that it was really working out well for him. Dosu was nowhere to be seen and he was starting to run out of chakra to control Kane. He had been in control of her for about 10 minutes now, and was about half-way out of chakra. The most he had ever done was 2 hours, but that was a hawk. The most he had ever done with a human was 25 minutes. So either he would have to get lucky or Dosu would literally have to fall out of a tree.

Haru was having no luck either. Hinata proved to be right. He could see Kane or Juro or whatever but could not find Dosu.

"So how does he fight?" Haru asked Hinata who was watching her two students spar.

"Different every time. The times I have seen him have always been different. Sometimes, he uses his crossbow, other times he will use his flame release jutsu, other times he will fight with taijutsu. I think he just makes it up as he goes." Hinata replied.

"Oh." Haru replied

"Okay Ryousuke, make sure you use the wrist guards. That is why I got them for you. I do not want you getting more scars on your forearms. The proctors at the jounin exam will turn that against you." Hinata said to her male student. The female Hyuuga was actually Haru's neighbor.

Meanwhile, Juro was as lost as ever. He would only have control of Kane's body for about 10 more minutes.

"This is ridiculous. If I wanted to wonder around in Kane's body for 20 minutes, I would have had fun and messed with people. Wondering aimlessly in a forest looking for some crazy well-done jounin is not fun." He said out loud.

"Who you calling well-done?" Dosu said from his perch in a tree. He hopped down.

"Uh-oh. Release." Juro said. His spirit left Kane's body. Kane came to immediately.

"What the he…Dosu-sensei!" Kane practically screamed it as she drew a senbon. Dosu walked a couple steps. Kane got a better look at the burned man. He had the hood of his sweatshirt off and you could really see even more of his face. Dosu had sunglasses on but took them off due to some clouds that came into the area. They were on a strap and on his chest. His hair was cut so really the top half of his head was relatively normal.

"So, care to explain yourself?" Dosu said as he hopped down from the tree.

"Uh….I don't know how I got out here! One minute we were trying to think of a way to find out, the next minute I'm out here and you're yelling at me!" Kane said frantically.

Dosu looked at her. "I'm guessing that he used that Mind Switch on you, when you weren't paying attention. He probably walked out here to look for me, using you of course to flush me. It was a good plan."

"Yeah…Well I'm gonna go kill Juro for using his jutsu on me." Kane said.

"Okay. But first, I wanna see what you can do. Let's have a little fight here. Just to see what you can do." Dosu said as he put his hood back on. "Don't worry I'll go easy on you. Just let me see what you can do."

Kane grinned. "Okay. But you're gonna regret the easy part." Kane said as she drew a senbon from her pouch. "So, I can come at you with anything I want right?" Dosu nodded. "Then don't get hit by this!" Kane said as she threw a senbon and hopped into a tree. Dosu caught it and broke it.

"Now, you're gonna have to do more than that. It won't matter how easy I go on you, if that's all you got."

"Not a chance. I'm just warming up." Kane threw another senbon at Dosu, which he dodged. Dosu then jumped into a tree opposite of Kane and threw a shuriken. Kane drew a kunai and deflected it. She then side armed the kunai back at Dosu and drew another one. She hopped down to the ground and hopped to the tree Dosu was in. He dodged the kunai and hopped back down to the ground.

"Come on. How are you going to show me what you got." Dosu said. Kane narrowed her eyes.

When Juro came to, he told Haru about where Dosu was. They started out to go complete the bell test.

"So, you just let Kane come to right there with Dosu yelling?" Haru asked, slightly letting an actual tone into his voice.

"Well, ya know. I'd rather not get in a ton of trouble on the first day. Rather her than me."

"Whatever." Haru sighed. "You know, you two should try to get along. I mean we are gonna be on the same team until one of us becomes a chuunin, and who knows how long that will be."

"I'll pass on the next one." Juro said. Haru sighed again.

"Let's just go find Dosu and help out Kane. God knows how she is doing."

"Hey. Even though we never really got along and still don't to this very day, Kane's good. Even if Dosu is a jounin, I don't think she is gonna need our help really. I say, we wait until she gets lucky and then attack."

"I think Dosu is too good to let a genin get lucky. I mean he is a jounin for a reason."

"Whatever. Let's just go finish this and go see what everyone else is doing."

Kane wasn't really in trouble, but she was staring to get annoyed. Dosu would just avoid every attack she could throw at him. Dosu wouldn't attack either.

Kane threw another senbon. Dosu grabbed it in mid-air and broke it in half.

"What is with you and the senbon? Don't you have any other tricks up your sleeves?" Dosu asked again.

"Fine! You want something big. I'll give you something big!" Kane yelled. By now she was angry. Very angry. Kane's attacks were not working and Dosu was taunting her. She decided to do something.

Kane pulled out a kunai and threw it and Dosu, which he of course blocked. Kane then did a reached into her oversized pouch and pulled out a small black sphere. She threw it at the ground and it went off. Purple smoke drafted over the area. Kane took the confusion to put on a simplified version of a gas mask. Dosu was not expecting this of course.

"Well, I guess I stepped over the line there. Better get out of here" Dosu thought to himself as he pulled his baklava tighter over his face. He hopped directly up and into the trees. However Kane had positioned herself here and took a swipe with a kunai. Dosu managed to avoid it but felt some weight disappear from his body. He looked down to see his kunai pouch missing. The bells were tapped do that pouch.

"FUCK!" Dosu yelled. He was going to have to wait out the gas. Kane however could hop right in. Kane did so and grabbed the pouch. She threw it back up after the cloud dissipated with a bell in hand.

"Have fun with the other two! And never taunt me again like that, sir." Kane said as she walked away.

'Curses! Well time to go have some fun with the other two.' Dosu said to himself.

Haru and Juro were still walking through the forest trying to find either Kane or Dosu. Haru had his Byakugan activated and was on the lookout. He couldn't see either one though.

"Okay, Why can't I see either one of them?" Haru said out loud. Juro turned to look at him.

"Don't ask me. Hinata or whatever seemed to know the most." Juro said.

"That's Lady Hinata to you." Haru said, defending the Hyuuga Heiress. Juro rolled his eyes. "Let's just find one of them and work from there."

And as if on cue, Haru spotted Kane in the distance. After another minute or so of walking they met up.

"Look what I got, knuckleheads." Kane said showing off her bell. Juro stared.

"How did you get that?" Juro asked.

"Like I would tell you." Kane replied. She then punched him in the gut. "And that's for using my body as bait." She said as she watched Juro double over.

"Good Luck guys." Kane said as she walked on.

"You did kind of deserve it." Haru said to Juro as the Yamanaka regained his breath.

Dosu saw the exchange from a tree.

"Well that's not how you guys should treat each other." He said to the two now started genin. "So how about you guys, try an attack me for once, instead of sending Kane to do your job."

If Juro was holding anything in at that point, he lost it. He drew his katana and charged Dosu. Haru sighed and began to measure out the distance between them. Once Juro closed the distance, he began his attack. He swung his sword to no avail though. Dosu seemed to have just been playing with them.

"Come on. If you're gonna use a sword, you should know how to use it." Dosu continued the taunting as he continued to dodge Juro's swings. All the while Haru was simply watching. Or so it seemed.

Haru was a tactical genius. The gentle fist style of jutsu required a Hyuuga to be calm and collected. Haru took that another step. Besides the calm monotone voice that Haru spoke in and the deep eyes that were always analyzing, Haru preferred to wait out an opponent. Haru forced the opponent to make the mistake. He would try to do the same thing with Dosu. As soon as Dosu would make a mistake handling Juro, Haru would come in and hit him hard with the Gentle Fist.

Juro on the other hand continued to attack with his sword. Dosu had taken up a kunai and decided to see what Juro could actually do with the katana. Dosu turned on the offensive and took a couple swipes at Juro, which were easily deflected. Juro had the weapon advantage but every other advantage belonged to Dosu.

'Come on. Make him do something wrong, Juro. Let me do the rest.' Haru thought to himself.

Dosu was intent on not letting these two get around him like the girl did. "Okay, so once I get around this kid, I have to worry about the Hyuuga. Great. I sure got stuck with a fun team.'

Juro continued to pester Dosu with the katana. Juro was had some skill and Dosu was starting to get annoyed. He was not gonna get screwed over again.

But, Haru had decided to enter the fight, which meant that Dosu was going to have to try now to avoid losing all of the bells. Dodging the swings of Juro's sword and now the strikes of Haru's gentle fist, Dosu moved himself into the middle of a ten foot circle. Haru was on his left and Juro on his right.

"You might as well toss us the bells, sensei. There is no way you can hold out without one of us getting in a good hit and taking the bells." Haru said to him.

"Yeah. Haru's right. Those bells are as good as ours." Juro added.

Dosu just looked on and motioned with his hand to bring it.

Juro ran in. Haru stayed back to check his range for the 64 palms.

Dosu pulled a kunai to counter Juro's sword. Juro began his attack with Dosu countering every blow. Haru then ran into fight aiming for the bells that were tied to Dosu's belt.

Dosu, however, being the jounin he was decided that this was not the way to win a fight. Dodging a sword and the Gentle Fist didn't really appeal to him. Dosu hopped backwards out of the circle that Haru and Juro had put him in.

"Okay, this is not going to work. I'll tell you guys what. I'll give each of you a minute and if you can get the bells, then we'll call it a day. So who's first?" Dosu asked. Juro and Haru looked at each other. Haru motioned at Dosu with his shoulder and Juro nodded. They would go right back to how they were doing it. Juro and Haru ran to cover the distance between them and their new sensei.

"Of course." Dosu sighed. Dosu then preformed a few hand signs and lowered his mask. "Great Fireball jutsu!" A huge fireball came out of Dosu's mouth. It was travelling fast and Haru and Juro had just enough time to move to the either side of it. A couple trees weren't too lucky though.

"Byakugan!" Haru yelled. They were now about 20 feet from Dosu. Haru already had the chakra flowing to his hands. Only about 4 strides now.

Dosu had also prepared. His hands also had chakra flowing to it. Dosu had activated his own flame jutsu. Dosu's flame jutsu was simple. Release your chakra flow to your hands and then use the flame release. The justu basically lit Dosu's hands on fire. This could match up very well with Haru.

Haru thrust his palm into the fray. Dosu quickly countered. The resulting blast looked amazing. Haru's chakra and Dosu's flame combining to flare up each time there was a strike or a counter.

Juro took a couple of steps back.

"Woah."

Hinata, from her spot about a hundred yards away, had a similar reaction.

"So, this is Hiromi's son. I now understand why the Hyuuga council is so impressed with him. If he can go back and forth with a jonin now, then I predict this kid will be the next genius of the Hyuugas."

Haru and Dosu continued to strike and counter each other's blows. Haru was waiting to an opportunity and he got it. Dosu shifted his stance and jabbed left. He then shifted his weight to his back leg and started to spin. His right hand was balled into a fist. Dosu tried to whip his arm around to get a spinning back fist. Haru saw this coming and dunked.

He now had a clear shot at the bells. He lunged for one and snagged it. He also landed a kick on Dosu's knee when he came around.

"Damn it!" Dosu yelled. Two of his kids had gotten a bell. TWO! Something was wrong. He found himself and took up another pose. He motioned at Juro.

"Yeah, that's not happening. I give." Juro put his sword back in the sheath on his back and backed off. "There is no way I'm on the same level as those two. But I'm willing to learn, so I can get the bell one day."

"You sure?" Dosu asked. Juro nodded. "All right. If you insist." Dosu released his flame jutsu and took a few steps toward Juro. "Don't worry, you got a lot of time. We got 6 months till the first chuunin exam. We get you set to see if you can take it then."

However in that moment of reassurance, something bad happened. Kane walked out of the forest.

"Uh, yeah. I got to go now. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Juro turned on a dime and grabbed his bag and took off.

When Dosu and Haru realized what was going on, they laughed. Juro was still afraid of Kane. And he had reason to be.

Meanwhile at the Hall Of Justice…(just kidding… I couldn't help myself.)

Imari was now officially pissed off. Yeah, she had read the reports on the kids. Nikliusu used sand ninjutsu that he inherited from his parents that were ninjas from the Sand and had resettled here. Doora used puppets. He also had roots in the Sand Village. His grandmother was part of the puppet brigade. Ouensu was apparently the heir apparent to the tiger sage. Her grandfather was the current one, but he was getting up there. His son, Sora's father wasn't a ninja, and so Sora was next in line. She had already learned some of the techniques, but hadn't learned the summoning yet.

Imari reached that new level of pissed off that she hadn't believed existed until now. Sure, she had been pissed before. Like when that asshole of an ex-boyfriend took her TV or that time when her apartment was broken into and her golf clubs were bent around a pole but this, this was different.

Right now, she was simeaulteanusoly avoiding who knows how much sand that was flying through the air, a 7 foot puppet with swords, and a hormonal teenage girl that had transformed herself into a fucking tiger. Not the best of times.

"You have got be kidding me!" Imari exclaimed out loud, after Sora swiped across her body and almost got a bell.

'This is ridioculous. These kids graduated like 2 weeks ago and they are this good? Holding them back a year does a lot of good.' Imari thought to herself. She was also contemplating her next move. She could only do some many backflips in a row. She flipped out of her last one and started doing some handsigns.

'This should buy me some time.'

"Thousand years of darkness!". Suddenly, nothing. Black. Nothing but Black.

"What the deuce?" Takashi said. "What is going on?"

"It's a genjustu. She cast it. But I don't think we can release something this complex. I mean all I see is black." Hikaru said. He had recalled his puppet, The Scarecrow. True to its name it resembled a scarecrow, you know, without the swords, daggers, and poison gas, etc. His other puppet had not been summoned yet.

Sora had also transformed back into herself. Her technique was kind of the opposite of Akamaru's Man Beast Clone. She could turn herself into a tiger. It used a lot of chakra and stamina, but luckily she had vast reserves. Conditioning is a girl's best friend. Her grandfather had made sure to make sure that she ran every day. She needed the chakra and stamina if she was going to be the next Tiger Sage.

"Well, what do we do now. I'm sure that she can still see us so standing around isn't the best option." Sora finally said something.

"Well what can we do? We can't see anything and I haven't been able to release this genjutsu." Takashi replied. Then, he thought of something. "Hikaru, don't you have night vision goggles in your pack?"

"Already tried them. Don't work." Hikaru said back.

"Damn." Takashi replied. "So, how are we supposed to find her?"

The team pondered to themselves quietly.

Meanwhile, in reality, Imari was having a better go. For her, nothing had changed. She was back at the training ground and sitting on the bench. The kids were basically standing in a circle, looking around at each other.

'Ah, this is the life. I can keep this up for hours. But just watching them wander about isn't really that fun…Oh! I know what I can do. This will be funnier too.' Imari thought to herself as she took a drink from her canteen.

"Release!"

And the genjutsu was released. For 10 seconds. The team had just enough time to realize that they were free and swing around to find Imari before she redid the justu.

"Oh, Come on! This blows." Sora said, with her hand on a kunai.

"Well, I think I know what she is gonna do now. She is going to keep us disoriented and pick us off. We stand no chance." Hikaru said.

"Don't say that. We always have a chance. We just have to wait for our opportunity. Then, we take it." Takashi said.

"And what would be that chance?" Hikaru asked, obviously doubting.

"Well, when she takes one of us out, the other two can jump her."

"That is the worst plan I've have ever heard. DO you really think a jounin is gonna attack three genin one at a time and then stick around long enough for the other two to counter?" Hikaru said, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well. I don't see you thinking of anything." Takashi said back.

"I can't see anything." Hikaru replied. Sora laughed.

"Well there has to be something we can do." Hikaru said after another minute or so.

"I got an idea. I can re-do my transformation jutsu and try and smell her out. That should work" Sora said.

"It's worth a shot. I should be able to use the Scarecrow's motion sensor if we can get her moving." Hikaru said.

"Well. Let's get to it then." Takashi said.

"Tiger Transformation Jutsu." (A/N: Not my best on the creativity scale but it works.) Sora activated the first step of the sage transformation. This was the first jutsu she was taught by her grandfather and enabled her to tap into the initial layers of the powers of the Tiger Sage. Similar to Kiba and Akamaru's man beast clone. Sora could transform herself into a Tiger from the Tiger Sanctuary. While she couldn't yet summon the actual tiger, she could transform herself into the tiger that she would eventually work with when she became sage.

"So…Did it work?" Takashi asked. All he heard was a roar. "I'll take that as a yes."

Hikaru had also felt around his puppet and turned on the motion control.

"All right Sora. If you can get her to run across the line of sight of the Scarecrow, it will trip the motion senser and then I can lock onto her and counter. Just make sure you run on a…uh…" Hiakru took a moment to orientate himself. "easterly course. I guess."

Sora then took off. She still couldn't see but with her new heightened senses of smell and hearing, she had a good chance of finding Imari.

And, Imari realized this. Once she saw Sora stop running her the opposite direction and turn and face her.

'Good Lord! How good are these kids? This is crazy.' Imari thought to herself. She then had to turn and run. Sora had caught on to her. 'I am starting to hate these kids.'

The good thing is that Imari could still see where she was going. And all she had to do was not run into the weird puppet's line of sight.

'Okay. Time to end this.' Imari thought to herself as she finally grew tired of the genin team. She took two more good strides and hopped into the air. While in the air, she flipped in the air and saw where Sora was. Sora stopped running and tried to find the jounin. Imari quickly used this opportunity to throw a couple of kunai a couple yards in front of Sora. When she landed, She did the same thing with Takashi, Hikaru, and the puppet, which Hikaru hadn't moved at all. Sora then caught wind of her once again and took off.

"Release!" Imari released the jutsu. Sora, not ready for the sudden switch lost her bearing and tripped over the kunai. Takashi and Hikaru also stumbled forward and tripped as well.

Sora released her jutsu. "What the hell is going on?"

"Well, at least we can see now." Takashi replied.

"Okay, well, I got tired of that. So why don't we just have a good ol'-fashioned fight." Imari finally said.

The three genin looked at each other and shrugged. Best not lose an opportunity to actually fight and at that moment Sora re-did her tiger transformation technique, the sand that Takashi carried in his backpack began to came out and Hikaru summoned his other puppet while readying the Scarecrow.

Hikaru's other puppet was called The Croc. It looked like a crocodile. It was about 10 feet long and about 3 or 4 feet wide. Not only was it a tank, but Hikaru also used it for defense. The mouth and tail of the Croc could separate and fold over so Hikaru could be fully protected from 3 sides and concentrate on the battle in front of him.

Takashi had also begun to show his jutsu. His Sand Control Jutsu had been a forgotten secret of the Hidden Sand Village. His father, Shizu Nikliusu, was a genin searching for a signature move to use. He poured scroll after scroll until he found something. A combination of earth and wind jutsu, the sand control jutsu, was the actual ninjutsu version of what Gaara did. By flowing their chakra into the sand, the user could control how and how much of the sand moved. Shizu then mastered the art and became the chakra induced version of Gaara. However, not a whole lot of other people took on the jutsu. In fact, only one did. Tatsu, Takashi's mother, was the only other person in the village at the time made an effort to learn the technique. The story that brought them to the Leaf was tragic. And it left the Sand without the two sand controllers.

During the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Shizu and Tatsu were on patrol in the River Country, which at the time was an Akatsuki stronghold. Along with a group of 22 troops, the group was hunting for a base that Akatsuki soldiers were using as launching point for raids.

The group found the base but was badly outnumbered. Intel had been off and the 24 man platoon from the 5 great nations stumbled upon a 60+ man force. It was a slaughter. The group took 100% casualties, 18 of them were killed on the battlefield. The 6 that managed to escape had to trek to the Hidden Leaf. Not easy when wounded. Shizu was one of the critically wounded. He had taken a blow from a katana right above his left knee. To make matters worse, a paper bomb had taken off his right leg at the knee. Fortunately the bleeding had stopped there due to the heat. A makeshift bandage was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out. Tatsu also had injuries but not nearly as bad as her husband. Little did she know, that she was a month pregnant at the time with Takashi.

When they reached the Hidden Leaf, the 6 survivors were soon reduced to 5, one of them died on the operating table, and Shizu almost became the 20th KIA. His left leg had to be amputated at the knee and his right leg had become infected during the 3 day trip. The medics did all they could and it happened to be just enough. However, Shizu would be unable to travel for a long time. And during that long stay in the Hidden Leaf, the two decided to stay.

Shizu needed to. Even with prostectics, his mobility would be limited. His left leg was cut right above the knee. A prostectic one could only do so much. Most of the time, Shizu was contained to his wheelchair.

The two did have a good life in the Hidden Leaf, even if they were homesick. They were accepted like they were always a part of the Hidden Leaf. Takashi was born 8 months after they arrived. Takashi also had 4 younger siblings. Two 9 year old twin brothers, and a 7 and 5 year old sister.

Takashi was able to enter the academy with the knowledge of the Sand Control Jutsu. When he graduated, he was almost as good as his parents at their prime.

And that's where we see Takashi now, standing his ground, with close to 50 pounds of sand hovering around his body.

Sora had also reactivated her first jutsu. It was another lower level tiger sage jutsu. While she didn't undergo a full sage mode transformation, she had taken on a littler one. Her fingernails had turned into claws and her hair had actually grown out a little and had taken a fuzzy turn. She was also starting to get stripes on her cheeks.

With the three genin ready to go, Imari charged them.

Sora ran to close the distance, as well as the Scarecrow. Takashi, a more mid range fighter, used the sand to cover that distance. Sora went right, the Scarecrow took the left and Takashi's sand went up to the middle.

Sora took the first chance to attack. She tried to claw Imari. Right hook, left straight. Imari dodged both attacks and kicked at Sora, who also dodged under Imari's leg. Sora then took the chance to lunge at Imari's other leg. Imari saw that and flipped back.

Hikaru then took his chance with his puppet.

Imari witnessed the how the puppet moved. It more or less hovered above the ground. However, it still maintained a full range of motion, and was able to fight. It still made the creaking noises that accompanied most puppets.

With just a flip of a finger, Hikaru had the puppet withdraw one of the blades that was hidden under an arm. Then he began his attack. As the puppet master began to work his fingers, the puppet began to come to life.

Imari was a little creeped out by Hikaru. Sure, she had dealt with puppets before but that was only with Battle maneuvers with the Sand Village. And that was only with Kankuro. It was a link to the Sand Village that opened the door for Hikaru. Back in the day, when the Sand village had a bigger (i.e. more than 1) puppet squad, Hikaru's grandmother was a part of the squad. After an early retirement, after a disagreement with the kazekage, she moved to the Leaf Village. There she started a family and gave birth to Hiakru's dad, Takayoshi. He was a ninja but did not use the puppets like his mother. However, when Hiakru was around 8 or so and became interested in his grandmother's work, he was quick to let his son learn the art.

Hikaru had progressed handsomely since he started. By the time he was 11, he had mastered the art of one puppet. By 12, he had mastered the second. His skills were on a serious up slope. However, his taijustu was severely lacking. However, he often made up for it with the use of technology. He had night-vision goggles, motion sensors, trap lines, computers, etc. Anything that could make up for the physical downside, he employed.

The puppet was just one piece of that. Standing at 5 and a half feet. The scarecrow was bigger, faster, and more deadly that a lot of the puppets out there. Able to hide 2 blades in each arm, that Scarecrow could effectively hold with any swordsman worth his salt. Added with more surprises, the Scarecrow was very scary.

And that was Imari's problem. She had no idea of what Hikaru was going to do with it. Hikaru started up with activating one of the knives in each of the arms. He was basically using the Scarecrow's arms like a pair of sai. After closing the distance, Hikaru began attacking with the Scarecrow. Left, Right, Left, Right. Imari was in a hard spot. With a tiger-clone, sand, and a killer puppet attacking, she had few options. She decided to flip out of the spot again. Quickly formulating a new plan, she activated more hand seals.

"Blade of Wind!" Imari yelled as she brought her hand down in a slashing motion. This sent Sora and the puppet moving. Takashi's sand wasn't as lucky. The stream was cut in half. Takashi laughed it off.

"I got two now, sensei. Bad move." Takashi snickered as he redid the hand seals. However, the jutsu wasn't reactivating. Takashi frowned. Imari laughed.

"You'll find out that my little wind blade can disrupt chakra if it doesn't make total physical damage to you. Have fun using that particular batch of sand." Imari replied sarcastically.

"Interesting." Hikaru said to himself. "I gotta watch my chakra lines."

'Well. That could probably throw off my transformation.' Sora thought to herself. 'I'm gonna have to watch that.'

Takashi stared forward. This wasn't part of the plan. But Takashi had options. People just looked at the sand. They never looked at him. Or the blade strapped to the underside of his bag. He pulled it and dropped the bag with a heavy thud. Takashi twirled it in his hand and took off. He closed the distance. Quick. In a matter of seconds, Takashi had covered the 40 meters. Sub 4 second 40 m. All the weight may slow him down when it's on, but he was quick.

"Damn." Imari yelled as she had to block an overhand blow while pulling a kunai to counter the short blade that was currently quickly heading toward her waist. She blocked the knife while tracking his other hand which was coming in for another punch. She stopped that punch and grabbed his wrist. Takashi then did something no one thought he could do.

By using Imari weight as a counter. He was able to work up his strength and get his legs up to kick Imari. She broke her hold and dropped to the ground.

Sora then rushed in again. Sora didn't have roots in a different village Her family had been here for a long time. However, most of them were more interested in business than any kind of shinobi training. Her grandfather, Suguru Ouensu, had 4 kids. 2 boys and 2 girls. None of them became ninjas. Those 4 children had 9 kids. Sora was the only ninja. Her mother, who was married into the Ouensu's, was not pleased. She tried and tried to get Sora to go to a regular school but her dad said that Sora could do whatever she wanted. Her grandfather had fought tooth and nail for someone to pass the Justus down too and he really did not want to find an apprentice outside of the family. Needless to say, Sora's mother and grandfather were not on good terms. Her mother had also began to not talk to Sora as much. Her dad was still proud the day she graduated from the Academy however.

The tiger known as Sora came roaring back at Imari. She quickly sliced her hand which activated the wind blade, but Sora had saw it coming and quickly dodged. She lunged again at Imari. Her claws aiming intently on the bells. Imari jumped up.

Which is where the puppet was. With a twitch of his finger, Hikaru brought down the hammer. The Scarecrow came with an overhand blow and collided with Imari's head. The jounin was flung down to the ground with a very large thud and formed a small crater.

'Substitution.' Hikaru thought to himself. Without knowing, Takashi thought the same.

The large white poof shortly followed and the three genin were once again left wondering where the jounin was.

"Wind Blade." Imari screamed coming from the air. Once again, aiming for Sora. The genin just managed to dodge again. Takashi ran in again.

Sliding in, Takashi launched a fury of punches. He managed a few kicks here and then to try and knock Imari off her balance. Imari was deflecting them all.

At this point, Sora tried her luck again. He launched in again and swiped her huge paw at Imari. Imari just got out of the way. However, part of her ponytail wasn't as lucky.

"God Damn it. Okay, you guys asked for it!" Imari yelled once she realized what had happened. At this time, the Scarecrow, Sora, and Takashi were in a semi-circle about 10 feet away. Imari rushed in, intent on finishing the fight.

She closed that distance in about 2 strides and began to trade blows with the Scarecrow and Takashi, countering the blades of the puppet with a kunai and dodging Takashi's punches and kicks.

Sora had turned back into her normal self. She had reactivated the Tiger Sage jutsu and had regrown the claws and developed the whisker marks on her cheeks. She had also joined the fray.

It was a beautiful, albeit, deadly dance. Takashi, Hiakru's puppet, and Sora, hacking and slashing hoping to get one of the bells. Imari dodging and countering trying to get some breathing room. She wasn't really in trouble, but the kids were getting close.

'Wow. This is a pretty close fight.' A new viewer thought to herself. She had been one her way to pick up her 4 year old son and two year old daughter from her parent's house where they were staying while she was running errands and her husband was out on a mission. ''I didn't think Imari would have that kind of trouble.'' 27 year old Ino Sakota said to herself.

Ino Sakota (nee Yamamata) was another ninja who had grown a considerable bit. Yes, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Yes, she was still dressed to turn heads. Even as a mother of two toddlers, she still had the killer look of old. She had begun dating her husband, Koji Sakota at 18 after the war and those two hit it off. Koji was 3 years older but was a lady-killer in his own rite. After those 5 years of dating, and with a surprise on the way, Koji and Ino were married but not before Inoichi made a few attempts on Koji's life for deflowering his little…flower. (A/N: So puny.)

'Well they can stay at grandma's for a little bit longer. This should be fun to watch. Is that a puppet?'

The puppet was right now Imari's worst nightmare. She couldn't really read what is was going to do next since the boy controlling it was a couple hundred feet away. Nor did she know exactly what is was capable of. Right now, Hikaru was simply hacking and slashing using the blades in the puppet.

Then, Imari noticed something. She finally caught sight of the chakra strings that were attached to the puppet. She knew her next target and formulated her battle plan. If she could knock the Scarecrow out of the fight, then she would knock Hikaru out at the same time. Then she could fall back to long range and deal with Takashi and Sora.

Imari, still with her jutsu activated, aimed for the back of the puppet. "Wind Blade!" She swung her aim for the back of the puppet in an overhead fashion. Hikaru was too slow. Even though the jutsu simply clipped the back of the puppet, it was enough to disrupt Hikaru's control of the puppet. The Scarecrow slumped to the ground. Hikaru would not be able to reconnect until he could get out there, which he wasn't going to do anytime soon.

"God Damn it." Hikaru said. He slumped back in his spot in the Croc. The Croc disappeared with a poof. Hikaru had re-sealed it. He layed on the ground, disappointed.

It was now left to Sora and Takashi to get a bell.

'Part 1 done.' Imari thought to herself, dodging another slash. She quickly composed herself and went back on the offensive.

Takashi punched again but missed bad. Imari took advantage of this. She grabbed Takashi's wrist and flipped him into Sora. They were knocked down to the ground. Imari then hopped away from the two new genin.

Imari did a couple of handsigns. "Mirage." She said to herself as she disappeared in a pinkish cloud. Sora and Takashi looked around.

"Is this another genjutsu?" Takashi asked. Sora shrugged.

Hikaru had noticed this as well. He had already put on his thermal glasses. He could see Imari, sneaking behind Sora and Takashi in the mist.

"Guys, behind you!" Hikaru yelled. Sora and Takashi turned but to no avail, they could see nothing. And it was too late anyway.

Like Nozomi did to his team, two quick jabs to Takashi and Sora, and they were down for the count. Hikaru sighed.

Imari released the justu and sat the two up. Hikaru was walking over.

"Well, I guess so much for that." He said to his new sensei.

"You guys shouldn't be ashamed. That was a really good fight. The three of you had me going for a long time. But what can I say; the Wind Blade is a great jutsu." Imari replied.

Hikaru nodded and went over to his puppet. He re-sealed it just as he did the Croc.

"Well, when do we start training?" Hikaru asked.

"Tomorrow at nine. Here." Imari said. "Come ready for some serious work."

Hikaru nodded and turned to go home. "See you tomorrow then."

Imari looked confused. "Aren't you going to wait for Takashi and Sora to wake up?"

Hkaru kept on walking. "I would, but I have some coding to do. I need to work on some of the computer functions for the camera's in my puppets. I need to work on the thermal and night-vision. Probably will take a while."

"Oh. Well see ya tomorrow then." Imari said. Hikaru waved.

Ino had walked over by this point.

"Well, that looked fun." Ino said as she walked over to talk to her look alike. Imari laughed sarcastically.

"Those kids are good." Imari said to Ino. "I think that they could do the chuunin exam as rookies."

"Well, I did hear that this class is pretty good." Ino said back.

"Definitley."

**That took me so long. After setbacks, giving up, coming back. I finally got it done. This story is live again. I hope that it won't take me this long to update ever again.**

**I hope to get about a chapter a week. And don't worry. They won't be this long again. **

**Cam out.**


	3. Chapter 3: Beatdown among Friends

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Morita Idoe pushed the clock off her bedside table. That sure worked.

She rolled over in bed and closed her eyes. 'I really need to stop doing that.' That was the 3rd one this week. She told her mom to stop buying them but, she kept insisting.

"Come on, Morita. Let's go. You gotta get up. If you show up late again, Seito is only gonna keep you longer." Nanami yelled up. Nanami, Morita's mother, an ex-jounin knew what she was talking about. Nanami, retired about 7 years ago and started a security consulting firm. Hyota, Morita's father, was part of the company but still did some missions for the Hidden Leaf.

Morita groaned and rolled out of bed and shuffled into the shower.

As she tried to let the hot water wake her up, she could only think more and more of the past few days. After the bell tests, the teams began training. I would be at least a month before they were given missions, and even those would be low D-ranks. Catching cats, delivery mail, general temp work, and who knows what else would be on the schedule.

The training was tough to say the least. Seito had them running, doing taijutusu drills, practicing their own ninjutsu, working on substitutions and clone drills, weapons, everything that Seito could possibly think of, he had them do. And considering they had been training for only a week and a half, Team 2 had done considerably more.

When she walked downstairs for breakfast, her plate was already set out. Her 19 year old brother, Isamu, was also eating at the table. He was already dressed for his job. Isamu was working at a gym. The one that Morita would be training at today.

Isamu was in college studying business. His dream was to become a fight promoter. He was working at the gym to build contacts.

"So, how goes the training?" Isamu asked after swallowing another bite of pancake.

Morita slouched down in the chair. She had a black t-shirt and black shorts on to go to the gym. She also brought a bag with the rest of her stuff in case Seito wanted to train more. She brushed part of her dirty blonde hair out of her face.

"Good, for the most part. Seito-sensei is trying to build up all of our skills. It's tough, especially considering who is on my team. Fujiwara is weird to say the least, and Ishimaru was lucky to graduate, but he is staring to get better. He can actually take a punch or two now. So that's good, I guess. But we still have a long way to go." She answered. Then she started eating her breakfast that her mom had laid out for her.

Isamu shrugged, "So, I'm guessing you guys are gonna be working on taijutsu and getting stronger today at the gym?" He replied.

"Yeah, probably with some other team that Seito-sensei is gonna bring in to spar with. At least, that's what it sounded like when he told us about it."

"Well, it sounds like it beats fighting with the same people every day." Isamu said as cleaned the last bit of food off of his plate.

"Sure does. Ishimaru is still pretty annoying. Kid thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread. And he is the worst kid in our whole group! His one redeeming quality is his ninjutsu."

"Well, just more the reason for you to do better."

Fujiwara had been up for a while. He had always been an early riser. You could count on seeing him jog around the village around 5 or 5:30. Usually wearing his balaclava, Fujiwara would go on a five mile jog before he went back home to take a shower, eat, and get ready for the day of training. By the time he had stepped outside and gone up to the roof to relax before training, his father had already been up there.

Yuga Takumi was a very interesting man in his own right. Yuga inherited the phantom control jutsu through birth, which meant it could be classified as a kekkai-genkai and that the Takumi's could become a small clan in the village. Now, Yuga's father, had been married when he figured out the jutsu. The only real problem, was that the jutsu couldn't really be de-activated. Fujiwara's grandfather had gradually lost his hair, but Yuga, hadn't ever really grown any. Fujiwara had done a little better, but shaved his hair to make his dad feel better.

But, Yuga, was a little scary looking. No hair, black eyes (think the black version of a Hyuuga's), no eyebrows, and slim. No real luck with the ladies. And that's where the clan status came into effect. In the Hidden Leaf Village, a clan could arrange a marriage as long as both parties accepted that they would go into an arranged marriage. At 20, Yuga, had only one real date before that. He consented. And that's where Fujiwara's mother came in. Another small clan in the southern part of the Land of Fire had decided to pick up the offer. The land of the Sano clan had been on the verge of being given to the Land of the Coast. If they were able to secure a partnership with the Hidden Leaf Village, they could probably strong arm the Fire Nation into keeping them in the county. Yuki Sano, the elder Sano's youngest daughter had seen Yuga and for some reason developed a massive crush. Yuki could marry any man she wanted to in the world because of her beauty but chose Yuga. They got to know each other and were married in a span of months after the announcement of the marriage. 14 years later, Yuga sat with his only child on the roof.

"How goes the team?" Yuga asked after a ship of his coffee.

Fujiwara took a deep breath. "We're doing pretty well. I have to say that overall we are probably the worst team out of my group of friends. It's weird. Amane and Seinosuke are on a team, Sora and Takashi are on the same team, and Kane and Haru are paired up. Morita and I just aren't on that level yet. I really think we are gonna be left behind unless me make huge leaps and bounds."

Yuga sighed. "At least you're honest. But still, you shouldn't be down on yourself, there's no reason why you can't improve more than anyone of those kids. Work hard and the results will come." Yuga then turned his attention back to his coffee and the view.

Fujiwara looked at his dad. 'I guess he does know what he is talking about. After all, he's got Mom.'

"I guess you're right. Still got a lot of time to go."

"Of course I'm right. Loosen up kid." Yuga said with a laugh.

Fujiwara couldn't help but chuckle as he checked his watch. 7:45. Time to go.

Fujiwara stood up and pulled his balaclava out of his back pocket. He put it on.

"See you later, Dad."

"See you later."

Fujiwara hopped down and grabbed his backpack. He waved at his mother as she stood at the window drinking her own coffee. She smiled and waved as well.

Ishimaru on the other hand, had just gotten out of bed. His tardiness was stuff of legends. He was never on time. Seito had learned that whatever he did to Ishimaru as punishment had no effect.

Ishimaru had run his hand through his long, untamed, hair and walked to the shower.

15 minutes later, he emerged with a towel and walked to his room, and in another 10 minutes he was dressed for the day and had walked to the kitchen to eat breakfast.

Ishimaru walked downstairs in a blue shirt with black pants. He had his glasses on and his hair in a ponytail. He walked into the kitchen and saw his brother reading the paper. No one else was home.

"What's for breakfast?" Ishimaru asked to his brother. Hayao looked up.

If there was one person that was the opposite of Ishimaru, it happened to be his brother. Hayao was tall, skinny, had his hair cropped short, and just happened to be a world class sprinter. Hayao was 19 and home from college. He had secured a track scholarship and was hoping to be competing in the Shinobi Nation Games for the Fire Nation. Hayao was training for the Qualifiers in a few months. He was also working at a gym part-time. The same gym that Ishimaru and the rest of team Seito had been training at for the past couple of weeks.

"Whatever you want to make." Hayao replied. Ishimaru looked into the cabinet. Nothing.

"Did you eat the bowl of cereal?"

"Yeah."

"What about eggs?"

"There was any left." Hayao said as he turned the page. Ishimaru sighed. Looked like he was going to have to wait until lunch.

"Sorry. I think Mom is going to the grocery store later." Hayao added. "There should be a couple of apples and a sports drink in the fridge. That would be your best bet."

Ishimaru opened the fridge and grabbed the food.

"Whatever. See ya." Ishimaru as he grabbed his bag and walked out the door.

"See ya. Oh, by the way, are you going to get your hair cut soon or are you trying to look like 45 year old female gang member?" Hayao said.

"Whatever. At least I have hair."

"It grew back."

Ishimaru smiled as he walked out the door. It felt good to make his brother remember the bald spot he had. He was tired of being referred to the superstar's brother. But, they would all see. Ishimaru would prove them all wrong.

Seito was also, but accidentally, running late. He ran his hand through his blond hair. He had not slept the night prior. His three year old daughter, Mai, had been sick with a cold. She was up all night coughing and sneezing. Unfortunately, his thirteen month old son, Ichiro had been woken up and had cried for the better part of the night. Narumi, his wife, and Seito and also been up for most of the night.

Seito was tired and in a bad mood. They had a spot at the gym today, but all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep. His team was supposed to lift weights and spar, but he wasn't sure if he could get through the day. Sure, he had been up for extended periods of time before but today was different. He wasn't the same. No amount of coffee could change that.

'How am I gonna watch these kids?' Seito thought to himself as he continued down the street. He envied the rest of the world around him. 'Why are they all up? How are they this alert?'

At this time, his solution bumped into him.

"He's never his late! It's like he changed places with you." Morita said as she looked at Ishimaru.

Fujiwara looked at his watch. 8:31. Seito had always been on time, if not early for their training sessions so far.

"Hey. I was only 5 minutes late today. That's a record." Ishimaru said grinning. Neither of his team mates shared his enthusiasm.

"Your ignorance continues to surprise me." Morita said sarcastically.

Ishimaru tried to laugh it off, but Fujiwara didn't join him. His smile disappeared as quick as it arrived.

"Here, he comes." Fujiwara said, finally speaking up. "Who does he have with him?"

Morita and Ishimaru turned to look as well. Seito was indeed walking up to the gym, but there were 4 additional people with him.

"Why are they with him?" Morita asked when she realized who was with him.

"He can't expect us to train with them, can he?" Ishimaru asked. Fujiwara simply furrowed his brow and remained quiet.

"Guys, I brought some friends to spar with you today. You know team 1, but meet their sensei Nozomi Torri." Seito said as he walked up to his team. Standing across from Fujiwara, Morita, and Ishimaru were Amane, Seinosuke, and Chitose. "We are going to spar with each other today, after doing some conditioning and some weight lifting. So let's get to this. Nozomi, you're in charge. I am going to take a nap. Wake me up when they start to fight." Seito said.

The eye-glass wearing jounin nodded. "Alright guys, let's get you started." He said as he walked into the gym.

24 Hour Training was a modern facility that catered to Shinobi, professional fighters, and the slightly more highly active. The facility had sparring rings, the latest machines, and more. There was even a regulation track and swimming pool in the backyard of the facility. Team 1 and 2 were impressed.

"Alright, guys. Get a workout in. Meet me at the ring over there in an hour." Nozomi said as he walked over to the door which led to the track. Amane already bugged out to go the track as well.

"So… which one of you guys wants to spot me?" Ishimaru asked after a moment's silence. The 4 other genin turned and walked away.

"Alright. That's cool. I guess none of you want to get embarrassed. That's fine." Ishimaru tried to shake off the hit to his ego.

Chitose and Morita walked over to the ellipticals to get caught up.

"So how has it been going for you?" Morita finally asked after about a minute on the stair-climber.

Chitose was on the adjacent machine. "Well, it been good I guess. With Amane and Seinosuke being more taijutsu specialists, I have been getting better there, but it's physical. I go home sore just about every day. But it's worth it I guess."

Morita nodded. "Yeah, we haven't been doing much taijutsu, but I get more headaches than anything having to deal with Ishimaru. At least Fujiwara doesn't talk much. But, holy crap, Ishimaru never shuts up. And he always has this snide little trying to be funny remark. It drives me crazy."

"I wouldn't wish Ishimaru on anyone." Chitose responded.

"He is the most annoying person ever. Like yesterday, he spent the whole day trying to come up with stupid sexist little jokes. I wanted to punch him a couple times, but I remembered we were going to spar today, so I waited to get back at him. He is not gonna like today at all." Morita grinned and snapped her fingers. A small spark jumped from her fingers. Chitose noticed this and laughed.

Fujiwara was spotting Seinosuke.

"Man, it feels like forever since we talked man. How's everything going with the training?" Seinosuke asked as he finished his first set benching.

"It's good. We managed to win the bell test, with only Kane and Haru being the others to do so…I was pretty happy after that. And over the last few days, we have just all been working on our ninjutsu basically." Fujiwara said. "That's our strength, so we've been running with it. I don't know what Seito is thinking about when he brings in you guys to spar. Amane could probably beat all three of us at the same time only using taijutsu. I doubt we are gonna get anywhere."

Seinosuke grunted as he layed back down to do his second set. "Well, it won't hurt to get better. And besides, the three of us could always use the practice against different people which I'm sure won't hurt you guys either." Seinosuke said in between reps.

Fujiwara nodded.

An hour later, the two teams met up at the ring. Seito looked a bit better after waking up from his hour nap and called the two teams together.

"Alright guys, as you probably guessed, Nozomi and I brought you guys together so we can get some sparring in." Seito said to the six of them. They looked around at each other.

"So how are we going to…" Morita started.

"I call Amane!" Ishimaru yelled before she could finish.

Nozomi and Seito looked at each other.

"…Alright…If you want to. Amane, are you ready to go?" Nozomi asked questioningly as he pushed his glasses up. Amane nodded.

"Let's do this!" Ishimaru screamed.

Seito pulled him aside. "I don't think you should fight Amane. He is a taijutsu specialist and you aren't." Ishimaru laughed.

"Oh, Please. I can take him."

Seito sighed. "Fine. Just don't rush into anything and tap out if you need to."

"He'll be the one tapping out."

Fujiwara and Morita looked at each other.

"Is he stupid? Amane is gonna kick his ass. Ishimaru has no chance. He'll die." Morita said.

Fujiwara looked back at the ring. "Maybe this will bring him back to Earth." Morita exhaled sharply and looked into the ring. Amane and Ishimaru had already climbed in. Seito was climbing in as well.

"Alright. Keep it clean. We're all comrades here. IF you need to tap, do so. I'll pull you guys apart." Seito said as he lined up Ishimaru and the still silent Amane.

"You ready to lose, Konishi?" Ishimaru slyly said to the older genin standing in front of him. Amane remained silent.

"He's dead." Fujiwara heard Seinosuke whisper to Chitose. She nodded and giggled.

The two fighters turned away from each other and went to their corners.

Ishimaru's glasses were contact-proof. A straight punch could not break them. Morita found that out first hand last week.

Amane took of his sunglasses and put on his sparring gloves. They were basically MMA gloves. Amane was well-known as a MMA fighter around the village, ever since he beat up that chuunin two years ago. After that, he had started fighting in the Amateur League in the village. He was apparently undefeated.

Ishimaru was Ishimaru though. Almost bottom in the class. No real physical skill. Couldn't do a pull-up. But, they all knew what he could do if you let him cast a ninjutsu. However, in a spot like this, it looked bleak for him.

A few seconds later Seito had them faced towards each other.

"Alright, tap and begin!" Seito said as he brought his hand down to signal the start of the match.

Amane took a few steps forward and put out his glove. Ishimaru tapped it with his fist. The fight was on. Ishimaru quickly went to his "trademark stance" which basically looked like he was a wide receiver waiting for a football to be snapped. With one leg in front of the other and his arms straight down.

Amane was in a more traditional boxing leg stance. His hands were open and ready to grab. He kept his back hand to where it was almost touching his lips.

Ishimaru was the first to move. He took a step forward and raised his left hand.

Amane was too fast. In the same time, he pivoted on his front foot, while sweeping his back. A quick turn of the head and he was completely spun around. Amane brought his hand around in a fist. Ishimaru didn't even have a chance to block as Amane landed the spinning back punch.

Ishimaru's head was jerked violently as he fell down, limp. Seito rushed to check him out. Amane had backed off into his corner. Seito waved his arms and the fight was over as soon as it began. Amane remained silent as he left the ring.

"Nozomi, do you have any smelling salt?" Seito asked as he was making sure his student was still alive after the vicious hit he took.

"I got some. Hold on a sec." Seinosuke said fumbling around in his pocket. He found it and tossed it to Seito. Seito caught it and waived it in front of Ishimaru's nose. Ishimaru jerked up and moaned. He passed right out again.

"Damn, dude." Seinouske said to Amane as he climbed out of the ring. "Did you hit him hard enough?"

"No." Amane replied. He grinned. "But that felt good."

Chitose laughed as did Morita, a bit. Fujiwara remained stoic.

Seito and Nozomi carried Ishimaru out of the ring and laid him down on the floor with a bad underneath his head.

"We're gonna have to get him checked for a concussion." Nozomi said.

Seito sighed and rubbed his head. "Yeah."

*Two hours later*

Seito and Nozomi walked back into the gym. The five genin were laying around the ring. Bored obviously.

They poked their heads up when the two jounin walked in.

"How is he?" Morita asked.

"Well, he has a concussion but nothing else. However, they are gonna keep him for observation, cause he was throwing up when he regained consciousness. His mother was pretty mad, but she is with him." Seito said.

"Yeah, kid'll be fine. He'll be up and around in a few days. Maybe we should use sparring helmets from now on." Nozomi said. Seito nodded.

"Okay. Who's next?" Nozomi said as he tossed helmets to the four remaining genin.

They looked at each other.

"Oh, come on guys! Step up to the plate!" Nozomi tried to rally the troops. After a few more seconds, Chitose raised her hand. Morita saw this and did the same.

"Alright! Volunteers!"

In a few minutes the two female genin were in the ring. Seito was talking to Morita in her corner.

"Alright, just stick to what we have been working on? Don't do anything stupid and let her make the first move then try and get her on the ground and go for the submission. That's what your best at. Aim your kicks at her midsection and up. Try and take out a knee first though." Seito said. Morita nodded as she slipped in her mouthpiece. Safety First.

The two female genin met in the center of the ring. Both of them had padded helmet and fight gloves on. Shit was about to go down.

"120 ryo (A/N: 15 bucks) on Chitose." Amane leaned over to Fujiwara. Fujiwara, who had his hands crossed, simply put his hand out. Amane shook it.

The action turned back to the two girls in the ring. Each of them had readied themselves into a fighter's stance.

Seito rang the bell.

Morita made the first. She took two steps and kicked at Chitose's mid-section. Chitose jumped back and reset herself. Morita pressed the attack and tried to kick down on Chitose's knee. Chitose once again dodged but this time threw a right hook. Morita caught it. She grinned and shifted her body weight to bring Chitose down by the arm.

Morita arched her back and flipped herself over. Chitose was brought down in a similar way. Nozomi saw what was going on and shook his head. 'She knows jiu-jitsu.' He looked over and saw Seito grin slightly at Morita.

At that moment, Chitose found herself in a sticky situation. Morita had her in an arm bar. Chitose didn't really know where Morita had gotten these skills. She had always sort have been a wrestler during sparring at the academy, but she would always try and take some down by the legs. This was new.

Chitose tried to struggle out of the arm bar, but Morita had her arm locked in pretty good. Chitose had two choices, tap out or try and spin out of it. She couldn't go down this early.

She gathered herself and spun her legs up. It worked. The momentum caught Morita off guard and Chitose was able to break free. They both reset themselves. Nozomi smiled.

Chitose looked at the clock. One and a half minute left. Chitose's turn to go on offense. She immediately took a couple of steps to close the distance between herself and Morita. Morita threw a couple of punches but they came up short. Chitose then jabbed with her right hand and managed to get a hit. But, Morita shook it off. Chitose then landed another jab, but was too slow in drawing her hand back and Morita grabbed it. She flipped herself and Chitose again found herself on the ground. But she was able to get into a guard against Morita.

'Oh, come on! Not again.' Chitose thought to herself. She was in okay shape, as Morita could not really punch past her guard and there was only about a minute left, but it was gonna be a long minute.

Morita continued to pound away at Chitose's defense for that minute and landed some hits but couldn't get anything big past her.

*RING RING RING*

Morita got off of Chitose and walked over to her corner and a waiting Seito. Chitose flipped herself up as well and walked into her corner with Nozomi.

Seito held out his hand in a fist. Morita bumped it with her own.

"That's how you do it." Seito said. "No need to change anything. Keep going at her and eventually you'll get her to tap."

Morita nodded and looked at Fujiwara.

"I got nothing to add. You fought a very good round." Fujiwara said.

Morita smiled.

A minute later the two girls were standing back in the center of the ring.

"Ready to lose this time?" Morita asked.

Chitose smiled back.

*DING DING DING*

The two girls got into their stances and began to circle each other. Then, Morita lunged and tackled Chitose, who was definitely not expecting that.

Morita was lucky, because Chitose wasn't expecting her tackle, she was able to get her head into Chitose's shoulder. She was then able to put her elbow into that same shoulder once she lifted herself up. Then with her right hand she started to attack Chitose's face. It only took her four punches for Nozomi to call the fight.

Nozomi whisteled to signal the fight was over. Morita stood up and jumped in the air.

"Boo-Ya!" She yelled. Seito smiled. Amane handed Fujiwara some cash, silently. Fujiwara looked down and counted it, then looked back to Amane. Amane sighed and handed him another bill. Fujiwara nodded and put the cash into his bag.

Nozomi sat Chitose up slowly.

"You okay?" He asked. She nodded. He helped her up to her feet and walked her out of the ring. Amane had walked over to help her down. She sat down and took her helmet off and shook her head once more to shake out those cobwebs. Seinosuke had already geared up and was sitting on the stool in the ring.

Fujiwara was slow to join his fellow Shinobi in the ring. He took time to put the helmet and gloves on and by the time he had crawled into the ring. They looked at each other.

Both of them could get points in the intimidation category. Seinosuke, with his Mohawk, standing 5'10'', which was 2nd tallest in the class and weighing 180 pounds. Kid was big for 13. Fujiwara, had his all black eyes, and was a little freaky looking in his own way. But, Seinosuke was clearly the better fighter. How long could Fujiwara last?

Seito had Fujiwara sitting in the stool in his corner of the ring.

"Alright. He may be better than you but that doesn't mean you can't beat him. I think Chitose was surprised that we worked on jiujitsu, but Seinosuke won't be. Don't go to the ground. Make him work for every punch."

Fujiwara nodded and put in his mouth guard.

The two genin met at the center of the ring and were ready to go.

Nozomi stood next to them. "Alright, guys. You know the rules, no hits below the belt, keep it friendly, same team here." He took a step back and started the fight.

Fujiwara exhaled and began to circle.

Seinosuke was trying to press his advantage however. Seinosuke was the better tai-jutsu fighter and just as paitient as a good ninja should be. But, Seinosuke wanted clearly to end this fight quickly. Can't let Amane look too good.

Fujiwara decided to use that against him. Wait for Seinosuke to make a rash decision and strike then. But that could be a while with his old pal Seinosuke.

Seinosuke also circled. Every time he would take a step or two forward to maybe engage Fujiuwara, Fujiwara would take a step or two back or to the side.

However, after a couple times of this, Fujiwara had run out of room and had his back against the cage of the ring. Seinosuke rushed him and pinned him against the cage. Fujiwara could only throw up a guard and try to keep his feet. Seinosuke had different ideas though. He wrapped his arms around Fujiwara's waist and arched his back. He leaned back and took Fujiwara with him.

*SLAM*

*CRACK*

And Fujiwara was out cold as well. Seinosuke got up and shook his head. Seito had already come out to check on Fujiwara.

"I don't think he has a concussion. He got his back slammed and it looked like he just got the wind knocked out of him." Nozomi said as he hopped into the ring. Seinosuke hopped out.

At that moment, Fujiwara blinked and tried to sit up, but he winced and leaned back to lie on the ground once more.

"I think he broke a rib." Fujiwara said in between labored breathes.

Seito did a quick handsign and activated another jutsu with those special eyes of his.

"Yeah, you have a crack in your 10th rib. Nothing big. A night in the hospital and a meeting with a medic nin and you'll be up and ready." Seito said after a minute of looking at Fujiwara. "It's really hard to check you. Phantom Jutsu right?"

"Yep. Basically invisible to sensors." Fujiwara said once more in between a few more breathes.

"Alright. Let's get him outta here." Nozomi said. "I'll see the rest of you tomorrow. Same time, same place as usual."

Seito turned to Morita. "You probably should head home too, Morita. We have to go back to the hospital." Seito nodded at Nozomi and in a blink they were gone with Fujiwara with them.

Morita, Amane, Chitose, and Seinosuke were left in the ring. The four began to pack up their things.

"No hard feelings, right, Chitose?" Morita said as she walked over to the genin with the blue-streaks in her black hair.

Chitose turned. She had a nice little shiner from the punches that Morita was able to land. "Of Course, Morita. All In a day's work." She said as she smiled. Morita smiled back and the two of them hugged.

Morita grabbed her stuff and shoved it back into her bag. She waved goodbye to Team One and started to look for her brother. After a few minutes of asking around, she found Isamu.

"I saw you fight. You did really well. That takedown was textbook. You just need to work on your strength and that chick wouldn't have flipped out of that hold." Her older brother said, patting her on the back.

"Thanks, Ismau. Winning was cool, but when two-thirds of your team ends up in the hospital, it's kinda bittersweet, ya know?" She replied sadly. It sucked. Fujiwara had a broken rib. Ishimaru had a concussion. Morita won her fight. But she didn't feel like.

'Am I starting to like these guys?' She thought to herself as her brother, seemingly thinking the same thing.

"Well as long as everyone is getting better, you really can't complain about a beat down among comrades." Isamu said jokingly.

Morita didn't share the humor.

Isamu sighed and bit his lip. 'Oops.' He thought.

"Well, I'm gonna head home and relax for the rest of the day. See you later." Morita grabbed her bag and started to walk out the door.

"Okay. See ya." Isamu said as he sat back down at his desk.

By the time Morita got home, she answered her own question. 'I should go see those guys at the hospital. They did kinda get their asses kicked.' She pondered as she dropped her bag on the floor and sunk into the couch in her living room.

She ran a hand through that dirty blonde hair of hers and groaned.

After her shower, she got dressed and began her walk to the hospital.


End file.
